The opening scene of actor Dave Franco’s directorial debut, The Rental, is very telling of the movie you are about to watch. We open on Charlie (Dan Stevens) looking at a luxurious AirBnB in his office with Mina (Shelia Vand) hanging over his shoulder. You can immediately tell there is a chemistry between Charlie and Mina as Charlie says, “this is just what I need right now” while Mina is ogling…
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It seems inevitable that an actor will at some point end up behind the camera as a director. The results of this happening, however, are mixed. Some actors-turned-directors start off with a dud, others start with a bang. This list focuses on the latter. Here are my picks for the best directorial debuts from actors-turned-directors. 5 – A BRONX TALE (Robert De Niro, 1995) By the time 1995 rolled around, Robert De…
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Harold Ramis’ 1993 comedy masterpiece Groundhog Day is one of the few films that I can think of, if not the only film I can think of, that became a genre of its own. The romantic comedy spawned a number of films and television shows about a person being stuck in a time loop where they relive the same day over and over again. Films like 50 First Dates, The Edge…
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Natalie Erika James’ Relic plays like the younger sibling of Ari Aster’s 2018 masterpiece Hereditary. On paper, this is a slow-burning horror film that pits our characters against a force beyond this world. But at its core, it is a deeply moving family drama about a tragic family event. Relic is one of the best horror movies of 2020. When elderly Edna (Robyn Neven) inexplicably vanishes, her daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote)…
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It is safe to say that 2020 has been kind of a bummer in the cinematic world. With Covid-19 closing down all movie theaters and delaying a lot of the hotly anticipated movies to later in the year or even next year, there hasn’t been to really look forward to. Though we have gotten some gems throughout the year, the only movies that we have been able to view since March…
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The first half of 2020 is over and needless to say, this was a one weird year. Thanks to COVID-19, movie theaters have been shutdown in the U.S. since mid-March, which has caused a number of movies to change release dates, some coming out later this year (hopefully) and others pushing their release dates to 2021. Most of the new releases this year have been smaller independent films released directly to video-on-demand, which has made…
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