Movie Reviews

  Pianoforte is a documentary that looks that the Chopin Piano Competition, the prestigious competition held in Warsaw, Poland that sees the world’s best young piano players come together and compete for a chance of a lifetime. It is a gripping, emotional ride filled with thrilling musical numbers as well as a fascinating analysis on competition and the pursuit of perfection. Director Jakub Piątek, whose feature film debut, Prime Time, premiered at the 2021 virtual…

  If there was a way to invest in the careers of an actor, like buying stock in a company in hopes of future gains, I would take all the money I have and invest it in the career of Jonathan Majors. From the first time I saw him in 2019’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco to last year’s war-epic Devotion, Majors has been a star on the rise, consistently giving great performances…

  We first meet Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) at a wedding reception. The two cannot get enough of each other. They love each other’s personalities, they love their jobs, they love their bodies, and they love the life they have with each other, which is why Luke proposes to Emily that very evening.  The following morning, they go to their jobs as financial analysts at a cutthroat financial firm where nobody knows…

  Watching a movie like Animalia makes me feel happy and excited about the future of cinema because we are witnessing a new talented voice in the cinematic world. Directed by Sofia Alaoui, in her feature film directorial debut, the film is an assured, well-made film that puts a unique spin on a classic genre. Though not all the ideas come together fully, you can’t help but be impressed by Alaoui’s confidence as a director….

What makes a family? Do we choose our families, or do they choose us? These questions, along with several others, loom large in Broker, the latest from Japanese master Hirokazu Kore-eda. On a stormy night, So-young (Ji-eun Lee) walks to a church to leave her baby in a box designated for abandoned babies. When the church gets an alert that a baby has been placed in the box, two men, Sang-hyeon (Song Kang-ho) and Dong-soo…

You would think that after having made some of the most iconic and successful films of all time over the last fifty years, it would be a tough task to continue to impress the audience and try something new. That would be the case for most directors, but not Steven Spielberg, who is continuously pushing himself as a director. In 2021, he dove into the musical genre with his bright and lively vision of West…

  It has been thirteen years since the last time we visited the world of Pandora, but James Cameron takes us back in Avatar: The Way of Water, the long-awaited sequel that was well worth the wait. Don’t remember what happened in the first Avatar? That’s fine. Cameron starts the film off with a juxtaposition-heavy introduction highlighting what happened in the first film and what our characters are up to. Following their victory against the…

  Every year around this time, we tend to get movies that feel geared toward the Oscars and awards season. Prestige pictures featuring award-winning directors, actors, writers, and crew members telling a story that feels dramatic or important all for the sake of winning awards. While some of these movies see success at the Oscars, many have failed, whether it be a lack of or zero nominations, a failed box office, a low critical reception,…

  Todd Field’s TÁR, the director’s first film since 2006’s Little Children, begins unlike any movie I have seen in 2022 and maybe ever. The credits roll, but they feel like the closing credits. Set to a backdrop with no music, we see the credits of everyone who worked on the film, from the stars to the craft services team. It almost felt like the film was playing backward or someone in the projection booth…

  Daniel Craig returns as the world’s greatest detective Benoit Blanc in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Rian Johnson’s sequel to his 2019 murder mystery that is even bigger and wilder than the first film. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Blanc is struggling. He is bored out of his mind and spends most of his days sitting in a bathtub reading or playing online video games waiting for his next great case….