Few directorial debuts this year will be as impressionable and as impressive as Radha Blank’s The Forty-Year-Old Version. The semi-autobiographical film, which follows a thinly-veiled version of the director as she balances her theater career and her new hip-hop gig, won Blank a directing award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. And now, over half a…
There’s something oddly refreshing about a new Woody Allen movie in 2020. That recognizable credit font. The old timey music setting the stage for Neurosis Theater. The now youthful stand in for Allen himself, having long since aged out of the gig, cracking wise for our amusement. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho…
Any film would kill to have a cast like “The War with Grandpa” boasts. Robert De Niro. Uma Thurman. Christopher Walken. Comic scene stealer Rob Riggle. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe film itself doesn’t tax any of the above. It’s a frothy, paint-by-numbers comedy that cant even commit to its central…
Released with little fanfare, Kubo and The Two Strings was a confirmation that the underrated animation studio, LAIKA, were putting the obvious contenders to shame. But while being praised by critics and, on average, earning well at the box office, LAIKA has still not breached film culture in the same way that DreamWorks, Disney, and…
It’s not easy covering an industry weaponizing art to a degree we’ve never seen before. This reporter leans to the right, as does Hollywood in Toto. No mystery there. It’s as transparent as the site’s tag line. Some days, though, it seems like every other pitch in my inbox is designed to counter my core…
There’s nothing more classic and familiar than a haunted house story. And yet, as Mike Flanagan has proven two years ago in his terrifying and emotionally arresting The Haunting of Hill House, what was once considered traditional can actually be turned into something more modern, with twists, characters, and themes that are even more resonant….
“What if there’s no such thing as happiness, only moments of not being depressed?” So asks the schizophrenic protagonist of Eternal Beauty, the sophomore feature from Welsh actor-turned-director Craig Roberts. A darkly funny portrait of the agony and ecstasy of mental illness, with a hearty side of familial dysfunction, the film thrives courtesy of some…
Sometimes a film reminds you why movie stars exist in the first place. The films themselves aren’t remarkable, or even memorable. When the star in question is on screen nothing else matters. We saw that in the 1980s with Eddie Murphy’s “Golden Child,” but it’s a trend that never went away. Read moreA Guide to…
October is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as “31 days of horror.” Don’t bother looking it up; it’s true. Most people take that to mean highlighting one horror movie a day, but here at FSR, we’ve taken that up a spooky notch or nine by celebrating each day with a top ten list. This article on…
Magic is (unfortunately) real in The Witches, an adaptation of the Roald Dahl book of the same name by co-writer and director Robert Zemeckis. Most of the time magic leads to good fun, especially in children’s stories, but Dahl isn’t known for making things nice and whimsical. His stories tend to have a dark bent, and…
My Campy Slumber Party is a column that celebrates nostalgic and underappreciated sleepover movies in all their unpretentious glory. Grab your comfiest clothes and greasiest snacks. Like a number of nostalgic trends, roller skating has made a comeback during the quarantine. Slipping and sliding along the floors of cramped apartments, many are determined to master…
Welcome to Drop What You’re Doing, the column that eventually catches up with an under-the-radar TV series and urges you to do the same. This time, we’re recommending Evil, the TV show you won’t believe began on CBS. There’s a reason you may not have heard about the procedural horror drama Evil before it made…
Ephraim Asili’s The Inheritance is the most culturally relevant film of the year. This year’s slate at the New York Film Festival is filled with documentaries and stories of liberation movements, theories on social change, and reflections of a crumbling American empire. Films like Her Socialist Smile and MLK/FBI at the festival center on well-renown…
Kerry Washington is one of the most politically active stars in Hollywood today. And that’s saying something. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe “Scandal” star routinely speaks out on political matters, campaigns on behalf of Democratic candidates and stars in projects with overt progressive agendas. Her starring role in “Confirmation” as Anita…
The coming-of-age genre is ever-expanding, but not every coming-of-age film underscores the tribulations of adolescence and adulthood with much innovation, to say the least. Brian Duffield’s Spontaneous is the latest young adult film adaptation that revels in explosive conflict, quite literally as seen in the opening sequence: during class, a high school senior explodes, and…
October is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as “31 days of horror.” Don’t bother looking it up; it’s true. Most people take that to mean highlighting one horror movie a day, but here at FSR, we’ve taken that up a spooky notch or nine by celebrating each day with a top ten list. This article about…
You know who is back in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, directed by Jason Woliner. Fifteenish years ago, Sacha Baron Cohen blindsided America with his fake Kazakh reporter Borat, who would pepper unsuspecting people with off-the-wall questions and absurd scenarios in order to shine a light our hypocrisies. Some of his interviewees/victims were famous but many were regular…
The first time hearing Van Halen was the first time you held an iPhone, saw a Marvel movie, had an online gaming experience and read a “Harry Potter” book. Maybe add your first love, kiss and movie theater experience. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe sum of all those can’t touch what…
Streaming might be the future, but physical media is still the present. It’s also awesome, depending on the title, the label, and the release, so each week we take a look at the new Blu-rays and DVDs making their way into the world. Welcome to this week in Home Video for October 6th, 2020, which includes…
Utopia is the term coined for a society that is deemed utterly and exquisitely perfect. It offers all factors of the desired life in means of idealism; providing the concept of a heavenly existence. However, sometimes that utopian dream is torn apart and put on high heat, tossing you into the unknown perils of danger…
Riz Ahmed rarely plays it safe. From turns in Chris Morris‘ Four Lions, to Mira Nair‘s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, to HBO’s stunning series, The Night Of, the young Pakistani-Brit is used to taking on heavy roles and making them his own. Here, he makes what he says is his most personal movie yet. And it…