Movie Reviews

        Pixar has been making movies for twenty-five-years now.  Since debuting Toy Story back in 1995, the animation studio has been a true cinematic game-changer.  Whether it be through storytelling, animation, or their unique characters, Pixar has pushed the boundaries of cinema to new heights. But what comes with being around for so long, and being so good for so long, is a predictability of what is to come.  This isn’t necessarily a bad…

        I haven’t necessarily done my research on this, but if I were to guess what film genre has the most remakes, it’s probably horror.  It feels like every year we get a horror remake, whether it be a classic from the 30’s or 40’s or something newer from the 80’s or 90’s.  Just over the last couple years we have seen remakes of It, Child’s Play, and Black Christmas, among others.  It is a…

          Dwayne Wade is one of the greatest basketball players to ever play the game.  Being a major basketball fan, I have followed Wade’s career since he was in college, starting during his legendary run of taking Marquette University on a Cinderella-run to the Final Four in 2003.  But even following Wade’s legendary career and for him being one of the best players to ever step on the hardwood, Wade’s personal…

      Sonic the Hedgehog was originally supposed to be released in November of 2019.  However, when the teaser trailer for the film dropped the internet went bananas over the look of Sonic (the human teeth are still unnerving).  Paramount Studios then did the unthinkable and listened to the internet and delayed the movie so they could get the look of Sonic right, or as right as the internet wanted it to be.  This…

          Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a movie that will stick with you long after you see it.  Eliza Hittman’s latest film is a quietly powerful film that beautifully captures friendship, desperation, and determination with painstaking authenticity that you won’t shake. Seventeen-year-old Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) is living a relatively boring life in rural Pennsylvania working as a cashier at the local grocery store with her cousin Skylar (Talia Ryder).  When Autumn finds…

          Worth was one of my most anticipated movies of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.  Director Sara Colangelo returned to the festival following 2018’s The Kindergarten Teacher to tell the true story of Ken Feinberg (played by Michael Keaton), an attorney who battles against cynicism, bureaucracy and politics to help the victims of 9/11.  This is a powerful, emotional, masterfully acted film and surely to be one of the best movies out…

          Scare Me is one of the most inventive Midnight movies I have seen during my years at Sundance.  A wildly original and incredibly entertaining film filled with meta humor, thrills, and three terrific performances. Fred (Josh Ruben) is a struggling writer who is hiding out in a cabin in the middle of the woods to find inspiration.  Fanny (Aya Cash) is a cocky, successful horror writer.  The two spend the night…

          Zola plays like the younger sister of Spring Breakers.  It is a gorgeously shot, wildly inventive Floridian nightmare with excellent performances.  It is a movie that grabs you from minute one and even though it does slow down a bit at some times, it’s a truly hypnotic experience. Based on a legendary, 148-tweet storm from a stripper named Zola (Taylour Paige) who went on a trip to Florida with another stripper named…

        The Mole Agent is a real life spy movie with a twist.  This documentary looks at Sergio, and no, Sergio isn’t some debonair young-buck who is continuously fighting evil henchmen, he’s an 83-year-old who barely knows how to work a cellphone.  So how did he become a spy?  He was hired by Chilean police to infiltrate a retirement home where there is suspicion of abuse and negligence.  But what Sergio discovers when…

        The career of Nicholas Cage is one that could be studied for years.  Starting out as a comedic actor in the 80’s in such films as Moonstruck and Raising Arizona, Cage went on to become one of Hollywood’s great leading men in the 90’s, leading anything from action films to Oscar heavyweights.  Cage even won an Oscar for 1995’s Leaving Las Vegas and was nominated again in 2002 for Spike Jonez’s Adaptation.   Cage has always been…