Real life is often fodder for storytelling. Typically, one will take an experience or emotion and transcribe that into something unique. However, fiction isn’t always as compelling as reality, which is why we get stories like Dumb Money (2023) detailing… Read More ›
It’s been a little over a hundred years since the first commercial radio broadcast when Pittsburgh’s KDKA broadcast the results of the Harding-Cox presidential election in 1920. In 1938, Orson Welles directed and narrated an adaptation of H.G. Wells’s novel… Read More ›
If you are a fan of the horror genre, then you are probably very familiar with the name, David Dastmalchian. In the last year alone, he’s exploded off the screen in films like The Last Voyage of the Demeter, The… Read More ›
Photosensitivity Warning: The visual elements used to convey transitions appear as an anamorphic lens-like flare similar to refraction of light that may prove trigging to photosensitive individuals. Memory is greatly tied to our senses. Tastes, sights, smells, and sounds all… Read More ›
“I reject your reality and I substitute my own!” – From the film The Dungeonmaster (1984) and *not* Adam Savage There’s a fairly popular video and text meme which starts with a reminder that it costs nothing to be kind… Read More ›
Certain films slipped through the cracks in the heat of the 2023 awards season. Everything released at that time was not going for the gold. Those smaller films attempt to achieve other successes. Outside of the awards season rush, some… Read More ›
It may seem strange to describe any part of Poor Things as conventional. This bold and highly imaginative fantasy is the eighth feature film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, a 21st-century auteur who has made a name for himself with his… Read More ›
From 2013 – 2023, Warner Bros. Pictures has released 15 films featuring characters from DC Comics beginning with The Trinity — Superman (Henry Cavill), Batman (Ben Affleck), and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) — and now it’s all over with the… Read More ›
Making a movie that is geared to children but still appeases the parents and the adults who are curious about the film is always a dangerous balance to achieve with the high risk of becoming too adult that it’s no… Read More ›
Period/fantasy films offer opportunities to view the current world through a different lens. If you lived in a world of orcs, goblins, and magic, what role would you play in the greater hierarchy? If you existed at a time of… Read More ›
Actors are a superstitious lot. They may not begin that way, but as they grow and the customs of performance seep in, suddenly you’re saying “break a leg” instead of “good luck,” never saying the name of a certain Scottish… Read More ›
All of Us Strangers is about memories, grief, and love. It’s about reconciling the past with the present and navigating the space in between. If you missed the U.S. theatrical release in December, you can stream All of Us Strangers… Read More ›
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S., Steven Soderbergh’s (Ocean’s 11, Logan Lucky) Contagion (2011) shot to the top of the streaming charts. At the time, the CEO of Warner Brothers was going all in on their streaming service HBO… Read More ›
Growing up in Virginia, the stories of the War of Northern Aggression were about as common as statues, street names, and other memorials to Confederate leaders who died trying to prevent their state’s rights from being taken away. The legacy… Read More ›
Sports films come in a variety of competitive forms including boxing, hockey, football, bobsled racing, and chess. With each one, the goal is the same: winning. But some of the great tales of competition don’t have winners, they have people… Read More ›
In the world of animation, there are well-known names like Walt Disney (Steamboat Willie) and Matt Groening (The Simpsons; Futurama), niche names like Rebecca Sugar (Steven Universe), and then there are names so large that they crafted entire houses around… Read More ›
Inside Lights Out are two wolves: one is a post-war drama involving a solider struggling with PTSD and lost meaning from time in the service, while the other is a thriller involving cops on the take and the money they’re… Read More ›
Photosensitivity Warning: There are a few scenes of refracted light that may be triggering for sensitive viewers. In August 2020, a video of 11-year-old Anthony Mmesoma Madu dancing outside of his ballet school went viral, garnering attention not just from… Read More ›
The End We Start From is the rare conventional “we’ve seen this before” genre film that edges ahead of its competition by way of its unconventional dedication to reality. It also squanders that edge in the name of reaching some… Read More ›
“Sugar. Butter. Flour.” These are the first words we hear in Waitress, The Musical, the Diane Paulus-directed (Cirque du Soleil: Amaluna) stage production that adapts the 2007 Adrienne Shelly-written/directed/starred romantic comedy non-musical Waitress. These three words signify the start of… Read More ›