Greek film director Yorgos Lanthimos is unique for many reasons, chiefly his ability to innovate storytelling within modern cinema. Black comedy is his forte, and his films have not been ones to hide behind their rhetoric, thankfully. Just a few years ago, the buzz built around The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and then, a [...]
The Phoenix Critics Circle proudly announces its winners for 2023. “Oppenheimer” led the pack with four wins but was not able to snag Best Picture, which instead went to "Past Lives," which ironically did not win in any other category. The complete list of winners and nominations is listed below: [...]
There’s something peculiar about a character, first drafted on the pages of a novel, immortalized by a fantastic talent in a beautiful classic film adaptation, woefully reimagined by two gifted talents, and now marked by a brilliant pastiche of the character originated on the pages of a classic novel: Willy Wonka, this time brought to [...]
Introduction If Die Hard is a Christmas movie, then so is Hook. The former is more in the category of "Christmas Adjacent", which is usually defined as a film that takes place during Christmas, but the plot could easily have taken place during another time of year with very minimal changes to the script. Many [...]
Throughout history, stories of honor, courage, loyalty, and integrity have become known to modern audiences. Whether it be your favorite comic book superhero movie or a retelling of Biblical stories, our common ancestors took their word seriously. Their word was their bond. And so, the story of The Oath is another entry in the cinematic [...]
Introduction I suppose it was only a matter of time for Godzilla to once again, become a main stay of cinema. Long gone are the days when a performer would put on a ridiculous, dinosaur-looking costume and wreak havoc over a miniature set. Now with how fantastic visual effects look and with the advent of [...]
One could be forgiven for walking away from Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn traumatized. However, that is not a sleight or a conceit on the part of the film. We each bring our own experiences to bear when watching a movie, our own vulnerabilities. We want to be entertained, and Fennell accomplishes that feat in spades. The [...]
When one thinks about director Ridley Scott, “style” and “substance” come immediately to mind, no matter the project. Scott has never held one over the other; instead, they are synonymous with his directing style - artful with intent. No matter the landscape, regardless of the character, whether likable or repugnant, Scott has not shied away [...]
Introduction Prequels are fickle things. While it seems, we are at the tail end of Hollywood's sequel-itis, the studios are still trying to find ways to use their tried-and-true intellectual property to get the audience back. Prequels are an interesting way to do this, but often executed with middling results. The pattern that blockbuster prequels [...]
It’s easy to forget that Trolls World Tour was one of the first pandemic films, in that it was the first major studio release during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Universal, who is the owner of the Trolls studio DreamWorks, decided to experiment and release the film directly to Premium Video on Demand (VOD), much to the chagrin [...]
