Free Solo follows climber Alex Honnold as he prepares mentally and physically to climb a 3,000-foot rock wall... without a rope. Free Solo is about obsession. The subject at the center of the film, Alex Honnold, is obsessed with free soloing, a sport where a climber traverses a mountain without any ropes or harnesses. Just their…
Paul Dano's directorial debut Wildlife is a quiet but powerful tale of self-destruction with a masterful performance by Carey Mulligan. Wildlife has all the workings of a classic kitchen sink drama. However, instead of the poor industrial towns of England, actor Paul Dano's directorial debut moves the setting to 1960s Montana and follows a working-class family as they…
Best Supporting Actor at the 2019 Oscars is stacked with industry veterans and newcomers looking for their shot at Oscar glory. Best Supporting Actor seems to be the most locked acting categories as Mahershala Ali has swept every televised acting prize including the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Critics Choice. However, I think there…
Shoplifters is heartbreaking but often funny and hopeful look at a family of thieves relying on each other to make it day to day. Shoplifters is one of those rare movies that you cherish what you don't know about the characters. Not because what's beneath the surface will change your opinion of them. It's because you know when…
Welcome Home is nothing more than a kitschy thriller that makes for a perfect popcorn-fueled late-night hate-watch. Powered by JustWatch Welcome Home is fun enough to watch, but for all the wrong reasons. The level of the melodrama in this erotic thriller makes it objectively bad, but it edges on so bad it’s good mostly…
The Guilty is a somewhat predictable, but taut single-location thriller of a kidnapping case unfolding in real time. The Guilty, Denmark's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, is a taut thriller that plays out like an episode of Law & Order: SVU. Told in real time, the film follows Asger (Jakob Cedergren), a police officer…
Widows is successfully a thrilling heist movie, emotional character study, and dissection of our current social climate. Widows is based on the 1983 British television show of the same name, but you wouldn't know that watching Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen's adaptation from a screenplay written by Gone Girl scribe Gillian Flynn. The film, which changes the location from London to…
The Cakemaker, Israel's 2019 Oscar entry, is a quiet and sweet drama with a great lead performance by Tim Kalkhof. The Cakemaker is about a relationship, but not a romantic one as the setup suggests. Instead, it’s a quiet and sensitively told story about grief and how different people process it. However, there’s so much more…
Bodied is a sharp and hilarious satire that tackles the complexities of woke culture by exploring the world of battle rap. bod·ied /ˈbädēd/ verb 1. to destroy or kill Used in a sentence: "The movie Bodied bodied toxic liberalism, performative progressiveness, and woke culture." Music video director Joseph Kahn’s third feature pulls no punches as…
Bohemian Rhapsody doesn't do much to break the mold of the typical biopic, but it boasts a breathtaking performance from Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury. Bohemian Rhapsody isn’t about the creation of Freddie Mercury. Yes, the movie starts with Mercury as a baggage handler before joining a band that would ultimately become Queen. However, the movie…
