The Dominion War might be the most consequential event in Star Trek history. When the all-powerful Dominion entered the Alpha Quadrant from the Gamma Quadrant via a wormhole near Federation Starbase Deep Space Nine, old enemies had to put aside their differences to band together against a common threat. As Federation planet after planet fell under the Dominion’s control, Starfleet entered into alliances with the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire, even engaging in tactics that violated Starfleet principles. The Dominion War took up most of the sixth and seventh seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and changed…

“Where are you from? Originally?” The question Peter Venkman asks in Ghostbusters has become relevant again. We already knew that the fifth film in the series, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, would see the return of not only the three living original Ghostbusters but also Annie Potts’s Janine as a full-fledged member of the team. But while previous reports from director Gil Kenan, who co-wrote Ghostbusters: Afterlife with that film’s director and Frozen Empire co-writer Jason Reitman, insisted that the previous film shut the door on Ivo Shandor, Gozer, and Zuul, the latest trailer for Frozen Empire shows that not every old…

Daisy Ridley is having quite the year so far. Her new movie, Sometimes I Think About Dying, released in theaters earlier this month and is receiving positive notes. Her indie neo-noir movie Magpie is set to premiere at the SXSW film festival in March. The biopic Young Woman and the Sea, in which she stars as Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim across the English Channel, was originally slated for a Disney+ release may instead get a bump up to theatrical. Oh, and she’s filming a new action-thriller called Cleaner directed by 007 franchise legend Martin Campbell. In between…

For a brief shining moment at the beginning of the 21st century, it seemed as though the historical epic was back. Despite the sniffs of some prominent film critics, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator walked away with the Best Picture Oscar in the century’s first year; a flood of sword and sandal epics invaded cinemas like the 1950s never ended; and it generally wasn’t a Russell Crowe movie unless the Australian thespian was waving a saber, cutlass, gladius, or other form of blade through the air. Yet the movie which arguably stood tallest during this fleeting period was Peter Weir’s Master and…

This article contains spoilers for The Holdovers. “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Though a dark horse in this year’s Oscar race for Best Picture, it’s no surprise that Alexander Payne’s latest dramedy, The Holdovers, is primed to clean up—or even upset—key acting and screenplay categories. Less of a candy-colored spectacle than Barbie, and certainly not as gravely bombastic as Oppenheimer, this quiet and philosophical story is all about messy, painfully ordinary mortals finding hope and redemption in everyday gestures. Smart and well-structured as an original script, the…

This Oppenheimer article contains spoilers Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a towering achievement. Ambitious, thoughtful, and often frightening, it’s one part biopic, one part cautionary tale, and one part lament for a world in which humanity’s most brilliant moments of creation are also inevitable acts of destruction. Grounded in a sensational central performance from star Cillian Murphy and an unflinchingly vivid directorial vision, it snagged 13 Oscar nominations and deserved every one. It’s not perfect, by any means, but it’s a sprawling, cerebral reminder of what blockbuster filmmaking looks like on almost every level. It’s probably going to win Best Picture,…

Did you know Dev Patel has had a black belt since he was 16 years old? You probably will now after watching the first trailer for Monkey Man, a new gritty action spectacle which also happens to mark The Green Knight star’s directorial debut. Indeed, the British born actor has enjoyed a respected career since his teenage years, beginning with the one-two punch of the TV series Skins in 2007 and the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire the year afterward. Both were impressive debuts that helped paved the way to an eclectic career which has included roles in movies like The Best…

Exclusive popcorn buckets commemorating big new theatrical releases are par for the course these days, but nothing could prepare us for Dune 2‘s take on the container, which is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Frankly, we’re a bit uneasy about the idea of eating popcorn out of a sandworm, but others on the internet have had a different reaction to the snack vessel. Some folks are very hot and bothered over the toothy (and, to their minds, NSFW) bucket. The bucket, designed to look like an Arrakis sandworm is sticking out of it and ready to chomp down on…

Badland Hunters is Netflix’s latest entry into the world of Korean cinema, and it makes for a gritty post-apocalyptic actioner featuring one of Korea’s biggest stars, Don Lee. However, there’s some confusion about whether it’s a sequel or not. Last year, one of Korea’s biggest blockbusters was Concrete Utopia. Critically acclaimed for its dystopian vision, that film was a tour de force for veteran lead actor Lee Byung-hun. It also won numerous Korean film awards and was South Korea’s entry for the Best International Feature Film category for this year’s Academy Awards. However, it did not make the shortlist.  Concrete…

Maestro has been the source of numerous controversies since the film went into production, and director and star Bradley Cooper has found himself at the center of many of them. From his divisive decision to wear a prosthetic nose to his revelation that he doesn’t allow chairs on set because they cause “energy dips,” Cooper has not always endeared himself to social media during what some see as an increasingly desperate campaign to win an Oscar.  We won’t know Cooper and Maestro’s final Oscar fate until the 96th Academy Awards air on March 10, but Maestro’s award season has been…

The ballots are in, and the nominations for the 96th annual Academy Awards are final. And with their announcement early Tuesday morning comes a new year’s worth of snubs and surprises. Yet 2024 has a particular twinge of deja vu because like on a frosty January morning in 2020, Greta Gerwig was notably passed over in the Best Director category. Indeed, the biggest movie of 2023 will go on to have the biggest snubs at the following year’s Oscars ceremony, with Barbie‘s Gerwig missing out on the Best Director shortlist and star Margot Robbie being absent in the Best Actress…

It’s been a good year for movies. As a film critic, it’s easy to fall into the  reflexive trap of stating that every December/January. Yet while looking at the nominees for Best Picture at the 2024 edition of the Oscars, there is (almost) not a bad apple in the lot: Anatomy of a Fall, American Fiction, The Holdovers, Past Lives, Killers of the Flower Moon, and of course the unlikely double act of Barbie and Oppenheimer provide arguably the strongest lineup we’ve yet seen in the 2020s. There were of course snubs and surprises, which we unpacked at length here—including…

The world has changed a lot since 1989, but that does not mean action movies should. At the end of the day, there is something quintessentially appealing about the lone individual standing tall against the many, and the underdog who is ready to do what is right, one bicep curl at a time. For a generation of specific barfly moviegoers, Road House (1989) is an undisputed classic that is probably playing tonight in a dive somewhere out there. In that cult favorite, Patrick Swayze’s tough guy bouncer (or “cooler”) James Dalton travels from New York City to Missouri in order…

This article contains light spoilers for Dune: Part Two. Even the biggest fan of David Lynch‘s original Dune movie from 1984 has to admit the (unintentional?) comedy that occurs when Chani (Sean Young) pleads for Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan) to “tell me of your homeworld, Usul.” In the very next scene, the two are in the throes of passion, suggesting that “tell me of your homewold, Usul” is a pick-up line with the power of the Voice. Believe it or not, the name “Usul” is not some Lynchian term like “Garmonbozia,” something he made up during transcendental meditation. Rather it…

It’s fair to say Sydney Sweeney is having a moment right now. The young actor has been on the cusp of legitimate stardom for a few years after doing memorable work on HBO’s Euphoria and the first season of The White Lotus—although it was her little-seen foray into verbatim cinema via Tina Satter’s Reality that really impressed us. But after Anyone But You turned out to be the sleeper box office hit of the holiday season, with the picture grossing $101 million worldwide as of press time, it seems Sweeney has finally broken through, and she has the social media…

This article contains light The Zone of Interest spoilers. Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-nominated film The Zone of Interest never once offers to hold your hand. While the film is not coy about its setting during the mind-crushing horror of the Holocaust, it demurs from telling you what to think about its images. This is a movie that dares you to merely observe, to study, and to have the courage to not look away. It doesn’t even tell you what the title The Zone of Interest is referring to—although it is obviously nothing good. And it is that implicit evil, that unspoken…

While recently scrolling Twitter, an interesting anecdote came to my attention. In the fabled George Lucas outline for a Star Wars sequel trilogy, a treatment which the filmmaker shared with the Walt Disney Company when he sold Lucasfilm for $4 billion, Lucas apparently had a strange vision for Luke Skywalker: He wanted the older version of Skywalker to be like a character in a movie Lucas almost made before Star Wars. He wanted him to be, in essence, Marlon Brando’s Col. Kurtz from Apocalypse Now, right down to the bald head and rambling gibberish. This detail is not new. In…

It is safe to say that the Barbie movie as we know it—global box office phenomenon and culturally relevant conversation-starter—would not exist without the contributions of Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig. In addition to starring in the film, Robbie produced the picture and was the person who originally approached Greta Gerwig and her creative partner Noah Baumbach about taking on the material. She also went to bat for them at the studio level when Gerwig revealed how ambitious her vision was… right down to finishing the movie with a gynecologist joke. More than once, Robbie recalled how she told studio…

Star Trek is one of best and most well-known science fiction franchises of all time, so it’s no surprise that it’s had a huge influence on the rest of the genre. From other space-faring adventures to distant worlds to straight up parodies of the Enterprise and its crew, there are plenty of shows and movies that owe a bit to Gene Roddenberry‘s creation. This is not a list of every single show or film that has been inspired by Star Trek because that list would cover a pretty good proportion of sci-fi on screen since 1966. But if you want…

This article contains major Anatomy of a Fall spoilers. Justine Triet’s new film, which just picked up nominations for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, and Director at the Oscars, as well as the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year, is a courtroom drama following a woman accused of killing her husband. The man in question was found dead after falling out of the window of their remote cabin. There were no witnesses. She says she didn’t do it. Did he fall? Did he jump? Or is she guilty? That’s for the court to decide in this fascinating character study that feels…