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‘Run Terry Run’ Is Worthy of Its Heroic Subject | Exclaim!
Run Terry Run is a stirring documentary of this young man, one that will likely reduce you to tears.
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Movie Review: “The Odyssey” Is a Feast for the Senses | ForReel
Christopher Nolan’s latest epic movie of the same name reframes the story to interrogate the plight of a guilt-ridden protagonist even in the wake of victory – his failures, his flaws, and his regrets while questioning if this hero can ever go home again, or if he even should.
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‘Tight Lettuce’ Paints a Compelling, Tragic Story of Substance Abuse | Northern Reel
Bodo is, to put it mildly, a mess, and while everyone is at their wits’ end with what to do about him, Joel remains steadfast in his support. It’s an effective inversion of the story, where usually it’s the parent trying to save their child; in this story, it’s the child trying to save…
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‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Takes Another Look at Marvel’s Most Enduring Character | Awesome Friday!
Spider-Man is Marvel’s most enduring character. If you’re not sure what I mean by that, not only has he had ongoing comic book series since the 1960s, but Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the fourth standalone entry in its particular series, which rebooted the series for the second time in the last two decades…
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‘Spider-Noir’ Is Peak Nicolas Cage | Exclaim!
“New York City. I was born here, learned to fight here, and fell in love here. A mistake I’ll never make again,” narrates Nicolas Cage in the opening moments of Spider-Noir. Delivered in a pitch-perfect mid-Atlantic accent, Spider-Man climbs a building wearing a trench coat and a fedora, all shot in sumptuous black and white. If this doesn’t excite…
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‘Exit 8’: Horror Films Reminds Us Why We Need Smaller Stories | Movies We Texted About
Exit 8 is an incredibly straightforward film -a man stuck in an endless hallway- but it reveals things much deeper than anyone would expect.
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Malcom in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair Review: A Wonderful Extension to the Original | That Shelf
The good news is that the legacy sequel is very much the same show that it always was, and that is meant in the most complimentary way possible.
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‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’ Does It All Again, but More | Awesome Friday!
Ready or Not is a near-perfect concept for a high-concept horror film. A young woman marries into a rich family. It turns out they are Satan worshippers, and as part of the family initiation, she ends up playing a deadly game of hide-and-seek. Namely, she hides while they all try to kill her as…
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Daredevil: Born Again Season Two Review: The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen is Back for More | That Shelf
The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen is back for more.In the first season finale, Daredevil: Born Again left its pieces scattered across the board. Wilson Fisk, The Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio), was firmly entrenched as the mayor and had declared martial law. Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton) is caged in an underground prison. Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva)…
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‘Maya & Samar’ Can’t Transcend Its Limited Perspective | Exclaim!
There are few things more frustrating than a film that just misses the mark. One made with care and sincerity, building its way toward a thoughtful message that then fails to land. Goodwill and beautiful visuals can go a long way, but if a film has something to say and can’t quite say it, it ends up…
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‘Youngblood’ Is a Sincere, if Familiar, Hockey Drama | Northern Reel
Sports are one of the prime frameworks upon which to build a cinematic story. Sports, at their core, are pure expressions of the human struggle to improve oneself and overcome struggles born from both within and without. They’re simple to understand but complicated to master, but just as often, the true answer is for…
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‘Montreal, My Beautiful’ Is a Beautiful Film About Learning to Live Life Unencumbered | Northern Reel
It starts with a language class. Journeys of self-discovery often start with small steps. In the case of Feng Xia (Joan Chen), it begins when her daughter Joy (Pei Yao Xu), about to graduate high school and leave the nest, points out that she won’t be around to translate forever. Feng Xia has been…
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‘Hair of the Bear’ Plays Cat and Mouse in a Manitoba Winter | Northern Reel
Canada is a land of extremes. Our whole nation offers rugged outdoor adventure, but there are many places where merely existing can be a struggle against nature. Eastern Manitoba, in the dead of winter, is one of those places. A stark, beautiful, frozen landscape where knowing how to work with the elements is mandatory just to sustain…
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‘Sweetness’ Sings a Song of Obsession | Northern Reel
Each of us only gets to be a teenager once. Our bodies coursing with hormones and our minds rapidly filling with new information, this is a time that can be chaotic emotionally as we navigate the world while developing into the people we’re going to be. This chaos, which is formative, is obviously difficult…
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‘In Cold Light’ Is an Excellently Performed, Average Film | Northern Reel
In Cold Light’s best scene is a confrontation between Maika Monroe’s Ava and her father, Troy Kotsur’s Will. She, fresh out of prison and on the run from a crooked cop chasing her for a crime she didn’t commit, and he, bitter and resentful at his family being torn asunder, have the conversation that…