Author Archive
Film Review – The Killer
“Do not improvise. Stick to the plan. Forbid empathy. Trust no one. Breathe.” These sayings are repeated again and again by the main character of The Killer (2023). This unnamed assassin goes by these rules like self-help mottos, using them as a guide to be as efficient…
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Film Review – Sly
“Time” is the running theme throughout the documentary, Sly (2023). For its main subject, Sylvester Stallone, time is constantly on his mind. Is there time to make another hit movie? Does he spend enough time with his family? Has he spent enough time building bridges and reconciling with…
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Film Review – Pain Hustlers
Pain Hustlers (2023) is a good example of a movie unsure of what kind of story it wants to tell. It starts off as a rags-to-riches tale, in which a determined character does whatever they have to in order to move up the economic ladder. We…
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Film Review – Killers of the Flower Moon
It is remarkable that Martin Scorsese – now entering his ninth decade of life – continues to push the art of cinema in new and interesting ways. Since 1976, with the release of Taxi Driver, Scorsese has stood at the top of the filmmaking world – a title…
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Film Review – The Burial
The Burial (2023) is a throwback courtroom dramedy that doesn’t veer off too far from what we have seen before. The tropes are all there: The surprise witnesses, impassioned testimony, lawyers standing up to yell “Objection!” while the judge hammers their gavel, etc. Within the grand…
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Film Review – Totally Killer
Now here is a movie that wears its influences on its sleeve like a badge of honor. Totally Killer (2023) makes no secret that it pulls from sci-fi and horror films, specifically time travel stories and slasher flicks. It goes so far as to mention Back to the…
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Film Review – Reptile
On paper, Reptile (2023) checks off all the boxes of your classic murder mystery: a twisty, convoluted plot with plenty of wrong turns and dead ends, a detective doggedly pursuing the case just as the rest of his life is on the brink of collapse, a mounting…
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Film Review – Flora and Son
Ever since his critically acclaimed Once (2007), writer/director John Carney has routinely come back to explore the connective power of music. Whether it’s in Begin Again (2013) or Sing Street (2016), Carney has taken a deliberately sentimental approach in how music can heal, inspire, and draw empathy. He basks so deeply in this…
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