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Conclave - Movie Review

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Conclave - Movie Review Critics Score - 8 of 10 General Audience Score - 8 of 10 If you were raised Catholic, you’re probably more familiar with the papacy and the process of selecting a new Pope anytime the existing Pope passes away. For those of us that weren’t raised Catholic, that whole process is somewhat of a mystery unless you have a particular interest in studying different religions and things like that. The new movie Conclave from Focus Features stars Ralph Fiennes and is directed by Edward Berger, the same man who directed the incredible remake of the WW1 film, All Quiet On The Western Front. All Quiet got numerous Oscar nominations, his new movie Conclave will almost certainly get a Best Picture nomination along with some other technical notices. I say that simply as a general reference to the films quality. Conclave refers to the lockdown mode the Vatican essentially goes into where all the windows and doors are shut, none of the voting members go out until a new Pope is s
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The Outrun - Movie Review

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The Outrun - Movie Review Critics Score - 8 of 10 General Audience Score - 7 of 10 I’ve never been much of a drinker, in fact I’ve only been intoxicated once in my entire life. Me and my friend Joel each did eighteen shots of Captain Morgan and other various flavored rums and vodkas until the inevitable occurred. My friend had the fortune of making it to the restroom that night, myself, I spent the following day cleaning vomit off of my couch and living room carpet. As much fun as that experience was, I’ve never drank like that again. The new film The Outrun explores the character Rona, played by the incredible Saoirse Ronan, who continues to prove her merit as one of the best young actresses working today. Based on the experiences of the writer/director Nora Fingscheidt, who was pulled headfirst into alcoholism, we observe its effects on the character Rona as she pushes through her struggles, periods of sobriety, relapses and the aftermath. The film is as haunting in its portrayal of
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Blitz - Movie Review

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Blitz - Movie Review Critics Score - 6 of 10 General Audience Score - 7 of 10 Steve McQueen, the director, not the actor, is the mind responsible for many great films including 12 Years A Slave, Shame, Widows and the criminally under seen Small Axe anthology series. Besides having directed a Best Picture winner and numerous critically acclaimed pieces of filmmaking, McQueen has triumphed black filmmaking, perspectives and culturally diverse pieces for decades now, any new project he helms immediately comes on the radar of cinephiles and critics. His latest film that he has written and directed is Blitz, coming to us from Apple films, which hits theatres Nov. 1st and streaming on Apple TV Nov. 22nd. It tells us the story of a young boy who tries to find his way back to his London home during “the blitz”. This was the name given to the period of about 8 months during 1940-1941 where Germany was continuously bombing Great Britain during the early stages of World War 2. Some of the aspects
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The Wild Robot - Movie Review

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The Wild Robot - Movie Review Critics Score - 8 of 10 General Audience Score - 8 of 10 Kids Score - 8 of 10 It’s been over a decade and a half since Disney/Pixar taught us that robots can be more than just diabolical, cold unfeeling machines that are primarily concerned with usurping human rule and taking over the planet. Yes, I know there’s another animated Robots movie from Fox (which is actually quite good) that came out years before the adorable Wall-E ever came on screen. But now we have The Wild Robot from Dreamworks Animation which joins the ranks of the animated pieces of metal that somehow feel just as human as our own flesh and blood. This is the story of Roz, a female robot voiced by Lupita Nyong’o, who finds herself stranded on an island full of animals. As she studies their noises and what they mean, eventually she learns to communicate with them and subsequently takes on the task of raising a young duckling with the help of a fox. This film is about as sweet and sentiment
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The Substance - Movie Review

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The Substance - Movie Review Critics Score - 9 of 10 General Audience Score - 8 of 10 Every year at the Cannes Film Festival in France, filmmakers, critics and movie lovers from across the globe gather to revel in the art form that is cinema, the motion picture. At the conclusion they give out awards, somewhat similar to the Oscars. This year one of the films that was nominated for the festival’s top prize of Palme d’Or and won the Best Screenplay award was the new film The Substance, from writer/director Coralie Fargeat. From the same mind that brought us Revenge (2017), her new film is just hitting theatres and delves deep into the same vein of body horror as, say, the French film Titane from Julia Docournau a few years ago. Now if you thought that film was sexy, twisted, disturbing, and probably perverse, Fargeat essentially told Docournau, “Hold my beer.” Nothing that I say or explain about this movie can really prepare you adequately for what you will behold when you enter the the
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Alien Romulus - Movie Review

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Alien Romulus - Movie Review Critics Score - 8 of 10 General Audience Score - 9 of 10 This summer has been chock full of films from already established IP’s. Despicable Me 4, Inside Out 2, Twisters, Deadpool and the list goes on and on. Some of these films were serviceable and provided some entertainment value in their own right. Others were an absolute slog to get through with very few of them being creatively executed. Furiosa probably being the one solid exception. Well we finally got an interesting prequel-sequel, depending on which aspect of the franchise you approach it from, with the new Alien Romulus film. It utilizes many of the elements from the franchise in new and inventive ways that was not only tension inducing but also felt very fresh and original. Where most of these other summer films seemed very copy and paste in their approach to telling their story, Romulus seemed more interested in reinventing itself, even with the overall narrative being not too dissimilar from th
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Ghostlight - Movie Review

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Ghostlight - Movie Review Critics Score - 9 of 10 General Audience Score - 6 of 10 So in most places growing up, there are usually books that are required reading in school. Here in the U.S. you’d find books like Catcher In The Rye, Of Mice And Men, The Great Gatsby as well as books by Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens and such among those reading assignments. One name that would almost certainly make every English teachers assigned curriculum of authors would be William Shakespeare, with his popular tale of Romeo And Juliet being about his most famous play. Well, the new IFC film Ghostlight released over this summer weaves the Romeo And Juliet narrative into its plot in a very creative and ultimately heartbreaking way. I won’t stray into spoilers other than to say that this family drama is as touching and tear jerking as they come, without steering into the melodrama of this small family’s situation. A father and mother of a troubled teenage daughter are struggling to find ways to con
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Sing Sing - Movie Review

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Sing Sing - Movie Review Critics Score - 7 of 10 General Audience Score - 7 of 10 Full disclosure, I’ve never been incarcerated, nor do I have anybody close to me that is or has been. The closest thing that I’ve known to prison is when I watch films like The Shawshank Redemption or Great Freedom. I can only try to get in the headspace of someone going through that kind of extremely difficult situation. Well, the new A24 film Sing Sing tells the tale of a group of inmates, almost all of whom play themselves in the film. We watch the theatre group as they brainstorm, prepare for and rehearse a production put on by the Sing Sing correctional facility located in New York. This is a touching story of about ten men who develop a comradery as they go about this project, but it also highlights some flaws of the system that’s designed to keep them behind bars. While this was a beautiful and interesting piece of cinema, it didn’t really make a strong emotional impact on me, which it could’ve had
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Strange Darling - Movie Review

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Strange Darling - Movie Review Critics Score - 9 of 10 General Audience Score - 9 of 10 I’ve seen most of the big summer movies for 2024 with the exception of a few. Some have been pretty good, some have been underwhelming and a few just plain duds. Well who’d have thought that in late August the bomb would drop of what has to be without question the best film of the summer, but also undoubtedly one of the best films of the year to boot. A new two hander psychological thriller Strange Darling stumbles its way into theatres this weekend without much fanfare, yet it is the epitome of why I not only love cinema, but began to write film reviews as well. People need to know about amazing pieces of filmmaking such as this one and I want to help spread the word on them. That being said, I will keep my opening remarks vague for the sake of not spoiling anything, but I would encourage anybody to go into this film as blind as possible. It’s a fantastically wild ride that left me breathless. This
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Twisters - Movie Review

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Twisters - Movie Review Critics Score - 7 of 10 General Audience Score - 8 of 10 I can still remember my first experience with the original Twister movie, even though it was now almost 30 years ago 😱. I lived in Michigan but went to see it with my good friend Justin in Florida, I got so sick afterwards I almost threw up in his family’s minivan. Despite the rough start, I’ve loved that film ever since, went through an unhealthy obsession with tornadoes for a while and the poster hung on my wall for years. Naturally I was quite interested to see what the new Twisters would be, yet tapered my expectations for anything in the mainstream “blockbuster” season. Even with the writer/director Lee Isaac Chung of the Best Picture nominated Minari at the helm, Chung had no hand in the writing of this new film, so my skepticism was still hanging over Twisters like a . . . (insert bad weather pun). Like so many of the big studio remakes, sequels and prequels, they mostly follow a cut and paste form
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