Ethan, the elder brother, is an actor who’s gotten work on local commercials and feels that he’s good enough to have a shot at a career if he can relocate to an entertainment industry hub and continue his training. Derek is an academic whiz who’s about to graduate high school and has been awarded a … Read more
It seems like a spontaneous pivot, fueled by a genuine power struggle. Then director Zachary Wigon cuts to a script on the suite’s dining room table, and we learn that “going off script” was in fact written into Hal’s script for the scene. This shot is the key to unlocking the entire film: If what … Read more
The premise, like the movie that follows, is simple enough. Golding stars as Morgan, an ex-Marine sniper turned hired killer who may look spry enough but is already considering retirement. Morgan dreams of starting a new life with his girlfriend Sophie (Daniela Melchior), but he must first complete one last high-paying job, and it’s obviously … Read more
Maybe it’s the leaden way in which director Louis Leterrier treats these beloved characters, but the opening scenes of “Fast X” are among the worst in all ten films, a cavalcade of conversations about family, legacy, and other FF tropes. It’s one thing for a character like Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) to preach the importance … Read more
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania blasts our heroes into the Quantum Realm for a new adventure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This superhero film kicks off Phase Five of the MCU and features Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and his now-grown daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) as they travel to an unfamiliar realm and take on a … Read more
Such a big spotlight helped make a scandal more prominent in 2020 when Lentz admitted to having extramarital affairs. Once seen as the wholesome, handsome face of the Pentecostal and Evangelical organization, Lentz was very publicly kicked out of the church by leader Brian Houston for his “moral failures.” But when reporters in both Australia … Read more
Living in 2257, Caleb (Isaiah Russell-Bailey) is in mourning. His father (Kid Cudi) recently died on the job, leaving him an orphan in the lunar mining colony they call home. Because his parents are dead, he is granted the opportunity to travel to the paradisal planet Omega, a 75-year journey that’ll require him to be … Read more
Cruz plays Clara, a mother of three children in an upper-middle-class Italian milieu who clearly loves looking after her brood. In the opening scene, she makes setting the table with them into a singalong activity. Family life is not too often so simple or harmonious. The father—this is never a surprise in movies of this … Read more
Wide-angle photography also helps viewers to distinguish between “reality” as Rourke knows it and the “Inception”-style delirium that warps his (and our) perspective, often shot with spherical camera lenses. If you squint hard enough at “Hypnotic,” past the obvious twists and embarrassing dialogue, you might see flashes of a deeper story, though only if you’re … Read more
That sugarcoat smile is just a thin cover for the near-constant shaming and judgment suffocating Jem Starling (Eliza Scanlen) as a 17-year-old girl growing up in a fundamentalist Christian community in Kentucky. Laurel Parmet’s brilliant coming-of-age drama “The Starling Girl” captures the vulnerable teen at the moment she’s finding herself, finding love (or is that … Read more