https://collider.com Stay up to date with new movie news, watch the latest movie trailers & get trusted reviews of upcoming movies & more from the team at Collider. Sun, 15 Oct 2023 21:21:49 GMT en-US hourly 60 At some point, I lost track of all the police procedurals on television. From Law & Order to FBI, it seems like just about every possible branch of law enforcement has been covered to some extent, with varying degrees of success. There’s some that have been around as long as I can remember, but Alibi’s series Annika hits a kind of criminal investigation I’d never heard of before, following Nicola Walker as the detective inspector of a Marine Homicide Unit in Glasgow, Scotland. The show’s back for a second season on Masterpiece, and with it comes even more of the quirks to be found in a unique perspective on the murder mystery.

]]> Sun, 15 Oct 2023 21:21:49 GMT https://collider.com/annika-season-2-review/ This review was originally part of our coverage for the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.

]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2023 19:00:44 GMT https://collider.com/anatomy-of-a-fall-review/ There aren’t many purely great things in life, but Kurt Russell saying, “Dinner time, you son of a bitch” while doing battle with an enormous monster emerging from beneath the earth is certainly one of them. In the first five episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, the new Apple TV+ series expanding upon the world where massive creatures exist as explored in past films Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Godzilla vs. Kong, there is a whole lot of subterfuge and spectacle surrounding this that the story wades its way through. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t, but there is always the constant charisma of Russell to fall back on. Whether it's letting out a shout as he steals a car to uttering snarky retorts when being interrogated, he is the main attraction to the whole experience (sorry, Godzilla). Although the manner in which it bounces back and forth between times can temper his brilliance, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters still manages to shine when it counts.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 16:00:34 GMT https://collider.com/monarch-legacy-of-monsters-review/ In the opening moments of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, Taylor Swift, talking to the sold-out crowd at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium, says that the crowd makes her feel powerful. By just pointing her finger, Swift makes segments of the audience go absolutely wild, screaming with excitement, until the entire crowd bursts into noise, pumped at just being in the same stadium as Swift. From the first full song, “Cruel Summer,” it’s easy to feel the exhilaration of the tens of thousands of fans in attendance, as Swift reveals she’s going to go through her 17-year career and 10 albums, split up into the different eras of her work so far. Since The Eras Tour began in March of this year, it has been heralded with rave reviews, sold-out dates, and a tremendous encapsulation of Swift’s career. For such a major accomplishment—which will likely go down as one of the highest-grossing tours in history—Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is a perfect way to ensure this incredible performance is cemented into history, and an excellent way to revisit this tour or get to see it without spending hundreds of dollars.

]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 02:31:48 GMT https://collider.com/taylor-swift-the-eras-tour-movie-review/ “How do we get you to stop with this ghost nonsense?” This line, which comes relatively early on in the rebooted Disney+ and Hulu series Goosebumps, is one that feels more revealing than it perhaps intended to be. Already a lightly supernatural drama and less of a genuinely spooky series that makes the most of its origins, this proclamation further feels like it is tipping off what the story is most interested in. Specifically, it somehow attempts to channel the charm of author R.L. Stine while also creating a more Stranger Things-esque reimagining. The youths in this story are all plenty endearing, but the shift to trying to make this into a sincere drama ultimately falls flat. While the original show from 1995 was an anthology series and the 2015 film was a somewhat meta-comedy, this plays it much more straight in a manner that is to its ultimate detriment. Even with a largely engaging cast of totally real teenagers exploring the supernatural, this Goosebumps never rises above being sporadically entertaining, increasingly stepping away from the fun, so-called “ghost nonsense” in favor of regular old nonsense.

]]> Thu, 12 Oct 2023 20:06:58 GMT https://collider.com/goosebumps-disney-plus-review/ Though there are plenty of strong animated shows that have been made for adults over the decades, only a select few great ones have managed to become truly engrossing. Much of this comes down to how the large majority are comedies, which can be good fun but isn't all there is to be experienced. This makes it all the more special when a show comes along that takes itself, the form, and its potential seriously, boldly pushing out into uncharted territory without hesitation. Scavengers Reign, the outstanding new animated series for Max created by Joe Bennett and Charles Huettner, is one such work. Expansive in the vibrant world it creates yet precisely attuned to the small character details as well, it's a show that continually surprises and naturally expands on itself at every turn. Over the course of its twelve episodes, it pulls us deeper and deeper into astounding animation that gives a greater texture to its survival story.

]]> Thu, 12 Oct 2023 16:00:32 GMT https://collider.com/scavengers-reign-review/ Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn is not the only film at LFF that had to contend with the glory of its predecessor. Jeymes Samuel (also known by his stage name The Bullitts) had a marvelous directorial debut with 2021’s The Harder They Fall, a revisionist Western for Netflix that put his highly stylized sensibilities on full display. His second feature, The Book of Clarence, takes a big jump in both stakes and scope, bringing us all the way back to AD 33 in Lower City, Jerusalem. Samuel takes a story that most of the world knows (and some believe) and doesn't so much as revise it but poses the question “What if this happened instead?” After all, whether this is revisionist or not depends on your beliefs. But aside from the Jesus Christ of it all, The Book of Clarence is a wild ride of pure cinematic fun while also offering a sincere story of belief and man’s search for meaning.

]]> Wed, 11 Oct 2023 19:00:41 GMT https://collider.com/the-book-of-clarence-review/ Hearing that Sofia Coppola would make a biopic of Priscilla Presley mere months after Baz Luhrmann’s bombastic Elvis was like waking up on Christmas morning to your parents giving you a gift you didn’t tell them you wanted. It was wish fulfillment for the girls and the gays everywhere — to get the side of the story that Luhrmann’s film completely avoided. With Coppola having proven she could put her signature coming-of-age spin on biopics of historical icons, there was nothing to fear. The story of one of the most famous wives in the world was in good hands. That’s what makes seeing the final product so painful. This could have been truly great. A fun but melancholic, ultra-feminine middle finger to the glorification of men who lived two lives. But Coppola plays it safe and offers a disjointed compilation of the highs and lows of a toxic marriage — and not much more.

]]> Tue, 10 Oct 2023 21:59:25 GMT https://collider.com/priscilla-review/ Apologies to the lovely city of Boston, but Kelsey Grammer’s Dr. Frasier Crane was one of the many things that was better in Seattle. It isn’t either his or your fault. In fact, you both are just about perfect. As for the rebooted Frasier, the whole heap of challenges it must overcome to earn an iota of the love still held for its predecessor proves to be too much. It isn’t that there aren't some occasionally fun bits, but it's more of an okay-at-best sitcom rather than something that will have the cultural impact the original series still does. This is obviously a high bar to clear, but this new incarnation only barely tries to make the leap.

]]> Tue, 10 Oct 2023 21:05:21 GMT https://collider.com/frasier-reboot-review/ Who knew suburbia could be so scary? Peacock has just announced a new series from the mind of legendary horror master, John Carpenter. And this time, the stories are true. Suburban Screams is a six-part anthology that explores the “true tales of terror” that occurred in seemingly idyllic American suburban towns. The series is set to premiere on the perfect date: Friday, October 13th. John Carpenter is horror film royalty, with classics such as Halloween, The Fog and The Thing. Carpenter produced the series alongside Sandy King, Tony DiSanto, and showrunners Jordan Roberts, Patrick Smith, and Andy Portnoy. Carpenter directs one episode, while others are directed by showrunner Roberts, Michelle Latimer, and Jan Pavlacky.

]]> Tue, 10 Oct 2023 15:00:32 GMT https://collider.com/john-carpenters-suburban-screams-debut/ If you’re expecting to walk out of Maestro with an in-depth look into how Leonard Bernstein developed his immense talent for composing, you will be disappointed. Bradley Cooper’s second directorial effort does not dive deep into the inner workings of the mind of one of the greatest musicians of all time. We don’t see him translating the sound of his mother’s humming into a score when he’s a child. There is no college years montage of him honing his craft and proving to his skeptical professors that he is a genius in the making. This is not your typical biopic. It is the story of a marriage and life between two people — one of them just happens to be one of the best composers of all time. And the other, well, that’s what the film sets out to tell you. Felicia Montealegre may not be a name as widely known as Leonard Bernstein, but in Maestro, she is at the center of the world.

]]> Mon, 09 Oct 2023 20:01:31 GMT https://collider.com/maestro-review/ For nearly as long as horror has existed on film, we’ve had George Romero movies to make it better. From inventing the concept of the modern zombie with Night of the Living Dead to his recently resurfaced gem The Amusement Park, Romero remains a pillar of the genre, a smart, bespectacled filmmaker whose work continues to influence others even after his death. My personal favorite, one in his vast catalogue of work, is 1982’s Creepshow, an anthology film featuring a host of scary stories, from jealous strangers to bizarre creatures hiding under stairwells.

]]> Sun, 08 Oct 2023 21:01:30 GMT https://collider.com/creepshow-season-4-review/ We all know the old saying that the only two things guaranteed in life are death and taxes. But if death is a certainty then so is grief. Every single person on earth will experience loss in their lives. Some will have to go through it way more than others, and a few of us may not have the same resources to combat it. When it comes to depicting the pain of losing someone and the sting of isolation on screen, it’s always been a mixed bag. It has to be resonant but intimate. It should speak to larger issues but still hone in on that character’s journey. There have been massive triumphs and clumsy misses in this area of film. Luckily, Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers is undoubtedly a member of the former, offering one of the most shattering and beautiful accounts of loss, love, and loneliness.

]]> Sun, 08 Oct 2023 20:00:17 GMT https://collider.com/all-of-us-strangers-review/ It’s a very rare thing to have intimate, character-focused dramas make us nauseous, squirm, and take in imagery we hope to never see again. That’s stuff for snuff films and horror, right? Wrong as that's where we are taken with Luna Carmoon’s debut feature, Hoard, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival before coming home to London. With it, she goes to places where films like these are usually too afraid to go. Settings are covered in filth, rat kings, and so much spit you could drown. Carmoon is focused on delivering visuals that will shock and disgust. But underneath it all lies a layer of weighty material, waiting to be used to tell a better story. Instead, these images are in the foreground of a compelling tale of grief, mental illness, and the past catching up with you when they should be in the background.

]]> Sat, 07 Oct 2023 21:34:58 GMT https://collider.com/hoard-joseph-quinn-review/ This review was originally part of our coverage for the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.

]]> Fri, 06 Oct 2023 22:20:19 GMT https://collider.com/the-burial-movie-review/ This review was originally part of our coverage for the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.

]]> Fri, 06 Oct 2023 22:01:54 GMT https://collider.com/strange-way-of-life-review/ When it comes to October horror, this season is off to a bit of a rough start. For every gleefully mean-spirited horror ride to hell like When Evil Lurks, there is a soulless sequel lacking in scares like The Exorcist: Believer. Yet there is nothing quite as perplexing as Pet Sematary: Bloodlines. A prequel to 2019’s Pet Sematary, it is a film where the stiffest thing is not the reanimated corpses but the dialogue the cast is saddled with, alongside a premise doomed from the jump as it tries to fill in mythology that didn’t need to be expanded and forgets about actually being a work of horror that stands on its own. The only scary thing about the experience is how painfully sluggish it is. There are plenty of characters and some bursts of gore, though it all amounts to what may very well be the worst Stephen King adaptation to date.

]]> Fri, 06 Oct 2023 20:31:00 GMT https://collider.com/pet-sematary-bloodlines-review/ There is a moment in V/H/S/85, the sixth film in the horror anthology that consists of a series of found footage shorts all made by different directors, where one of the stories ends up connecting to another. The precise way it does so is best left unspoiled, as it is quite fun in the moment, but it brings into focus that the most memorable part is actually just one extended experience divided by other installments without this interconnectivity. While past entries have always been defined by rises and falls in quality across the entire runtime, the less successful components of V/H/S/85 start to make the structure feel a bit flimsy. It is still an interesting format and can actually free up filmmakers to experiment in ways they may not in a full feature, though the execution this time around leaves much to be desired.

]]> Fri, 06 Oct 2023 20:00:30 GMT https://collider.com/vhs85-review/ David Farrier’s been on the cutting edge of bizarre documentaries for years. He’s made a name for himself telling off-beat stories as a journalist, and his directorial debut, Tickled, is what got me seriously interested in documentary filmmaking back in high school, going beyond the kinds of straightforward storytelling I’d seen in educational videos at school and peeling back the most bizarre layers of society. He unearths the strangest parts of our world, honing in on hyper-specific topics to tell tales of greed, narcissism, and the truly bizarre, with a knack for narration and featuring himself in his stories that make things all the more compelling — and in some cases, terrifying.

]]> Thu, 05 Oct 2023 22:28:10 GMT https://collider.com/mister-organ-movie-review/ Even over forty years on, we can’t get enough of the ‘80s — and neither can director Nahnatchka Khan, whose upcoming slasher-comedy Totally Killer hits Prime Video this Friday. She takes us back to a time of big hair and even bigger movies with her story about teenage Jamie (Kiernan Shipka), who finds herself transported back to 1987, in an attempt to stop the “Sweet 16 Killer” who murdered her mother’s high school best friends, only to discover that her teenage mother (Olivia Holt) isn’t as nice as everyone remembers her being. She is a type A mean girl, long before Regina George would ever hit the scene.

]]> Thu, 05 Oct 2023 22:05:50 GMT https://collider.com/totally-killer-review/ There is absolutely no arguing that David Fincher is one of the greatest filmmakers ever. Se7en is an all-time murder-mystery thriller, Gone Girl is an adaptation that captures the brilliance of its source material and then some, and Zodiac might just be the definitive serial killer movie. Yes, Fincher is flying high and has become a master of the Hollywood thriller. But when you’re flying that high, so are expectations. The Killer, his second production with Netflix, is easily one of the most anticipated films of the year. This is in some part due to its A-list lead, audience-pleasing plot, and promise of action and violence (you know, universally beloved things to see on the big screen). But there is only one thing you really need to say to get someone interested: “It’s the new Fincher.” If The Killer teaches us anything, it’s that any director, no matter how legendary they are, can fall victim to a bad script. While Fincher’s iconic style permeates the two-hour runtime, the hollow plot and uninspired writing are impossible to ignore.

]]> Thu, 05 Oct 2023 21:32:23 GMT https://collider.com/the-killer-review/ Premiering at the Telluride Film Festival before coming to London, Jeff Nichols’s The Bikeriders epitomizes that saying “Too many cooks in the kitchen.” While there are many talented faces crowded over the hobs, there is no flavor or spice. Starring Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, and Mike Faist, the latest picture from the Mud and Loving director is a chaotic misfire, full of beautiful faces but no substance.

]]> Thu, 05 Oct 2023 21:00:06 GMT https://collider.com/the-bikeriders-review/ There is no horror series out there quite like Chucky. Think about it: how many slasher stories have extended over multiple films and now three seasons of television? In a world in which expansions of iconic horror films can feel painfully soulless, Chucky is a rare gift that keeps on giving as it has only gotten better over time. Riffing on its own rules at every turn while never getting too tangled up in itself that it forgets to be a bloody good time, it feels like one of those shows that could carry on for ten seasons without ever growing tired. As long as it keeps reinventing itself, finding new settings and scenarios to explore, then that wild doll first introduced in the classic film Child’s Play will always be worth playing around with. Just watch your neck or you’ll soon find your insides on your outside. With its third season, four episodes of which were provided for review, the series sets its ambitions higher than ever before and creates what is shaping up to be its best outing to date.

]]> Wed, 04 Oct 2023 20:30:08 GMT https://collider.com/chucky-season-3-review/ Emerald Fennell was given a very tall order to follow up Promising Young Woman, her feature film debut that won her an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. It spoke to the growing conversation around abuse, consent, and victim blaming. It gave us Carey Mulligan at her best and it cemented Fennell as a filmmaker to be reckoned with. While Saltburn makes a committed effort to live up to its predecessor, its lack of a deeper meaning or bite places it firmly in second place. While it is not without its merits — mainly the performances and cinematography — Saltburn adds nothing new to the recent burst of “Eat the Rich” films. However, it’s still a very fun ride worth taking — one full of excess, dirt, comedy, and bodily fluids.

]]> Wed, 04 Oct 2023 18:00:32 GMT https://collider.com/saltburn-review/ When the late, great director William Friedkin unleashed the pinnacle of horror that is The Exorcist upon the world in 1973, it was as if he had tapped into something almost demonic himself. Telling the story of the young Regan (Linda Blair) who becomes possessed and the desperate efforts by her mother Chris (Ellen Burstyn) to save her, it was an experience that was as patient as it was petrifying. 50 years later, it still looks absolutely magnificent, wrapping you up in its world before crushing the air from your lungs in one of the most iconic conclusions in cinema. It remains one of the all-time great works of horror ever made.

]]> Wed, 04 Oct 2023 15:00:33 GMT https://collider.com/the-exorcist-believer-review/ The first season of the Quantum Leap reboot was faced with the titanic task of appealing to fans of the original and attracting new viewers. It's a wild tightrope to walk, but Dr. Ben Song (Raymond Lee) and his team almost make it look easy. While the series had several ties to the original, it expertly avoided the pitfall of over-relying on nostalgia, leading to a well-received debut. Its success meant there was significant anticipation for its sophomore run, especially as Season 1 ended on a hell of a note, with several major questions unanswered.

]]> Tue, 03 Oct 2023 20:00:30 GMT https://collider.com/quantum-leap-season-2-review/ Most MCU TV shows exist in their own little bubble, connected to the larger universe but isolated on their own. Secret Invasion sees a world-altering secret come to life, while She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel introduce two new super-powered superheroes, but it all feels disjointed, and many times we're left wondering what purpose these shows serve. Are they meant to retcon past storytelling decisions in order to take the MCU on a more expansive path? Are they simply soft-launching superheroes who we will then have to meet all over again when they appear on the big screen? Unlike Star Wars or the DCU, the MCU often proudly boasts its interconnectivity, but when I watch shows like Loki, I question the reality of that interconnectivity.

]]> Tue, 03 Oct 2023 13:00:30 GMT https://collider.com/loki-season-2-review/ It’s not often that we so definitively know an artist’s last project will, in fact, be their last. The world isn’t as clean and tidy as that, and oftentimes, it’s tragic to find that a piece of art is the last bastion of a truly great mind. So examining William Friedkin’s final film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, feels like no easy task after his passing in August of this year — one as gargantuan as determining whether or not someone committed a mutiny, it seems.

]]> Mon, 02 Oct 2023 20:01:04 GMT https://collider.com/the-caine-mutiny-court-martial-review/ There’s a really good movie lurking at the corners of The Kill Room. As the story unfolds, you can clearly see some elements that, if pursued further, could greatly elevate the experience. However, the Nicol Paone movie – a follow-up to the director’s 2020 debut Friendsgiving – chooses to play it safe most of the time, despite the narrative begging for it to go deeper.

]]> Fri, 29 Sep 2023 22:12:42 GMT https://collider.com/the-kill-room-review/ Life is a funny phenomenon, as evidenced in the upcoming Apple TV+ series Lessons in Chemistry (adapted from Bonnie Garmus' bestselling book). No matter how careful and meticulous a planner you are, no matter how painstaking your efforts to ensure that you're following a set formula, there are always forces that can never be truly accounted for — catalysts for permanent change, for better or worse. The path you were so intent on holding fast to from the beginning can make unpredictable turns until you're glancing back with the realization that you've ended up in the least likely place you thought you would. Then again, haven't all the best discoveries, scientific or otherwise, resulted from unplanned moments? It's a lesson that the show's heroine, intelligent and underappreciated chemist Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson), has to learn for herself in the years-spanning timeframe the show adopts, but it doesn't come without hardship, loss, personal and professional frustrations, unexpected success, and surprises along the way.

]]> Fri, 29 Sep 2023 20:40:18 GMT https://collider.com/lessons-in-chemistry-apple-tv-review/ The experience of watching the first eight Saw films is not unlike the spiraling Charlie Day's character goes through in the infamous Pepe Silvia episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. If you were to use a piece of string to try to trace the journey that Tobin Bell's notorious Jigsaw goes on, it would quickly get tangled up in itself and leave you frantically trying to shape it into something that can hold together. Even when he met his demise, the movies found a way to fold time and space itself to somehow bring him back into the story, logic be damned! With each entry, this became more and more complicated as entire movies take place alongside or even before others without it being entirely clear that this is happening until towards the end. The lengths to which the subterfuge goes makes each into an experience increasingly defined by bemusement over its twists as it is gruesome death.

]]> Fri, 29 Sep 2023 05:48:35 GMT https://collider.com/saw-x-review/ The wide-ranging realm of genre television is already home to a lot of different characters — warriors, elves, monsters, sorcerers — so it's somewhat surprising that, apart from only a handful of isolated instances, pirates have never really been front and center on the small screen. The release of Our Flag Means Death's first season last year, however, was a stark reminder that not only could these swashbuckling ne'er-do-wells be cool again, but they could serve as the perfect backdrop for a found family consisting of outcasts and misfits. The high sea effectively became a safe space, wherein the show's characters could embrace the things that made them distinct and unique as well as recognize the inherently valued traits in each other.

]]> Thu, 28 Sep 2023 15:00:30 GMT https://collider.com/our-flag-means-death-season-2-review/ When Netflix first released Castlevania, it brought to life a beloved video game franchise with stunning animation and a star-studded voice cast. It was a slick series that capitalized on the fantastical nature of the game without sacrificing any of the grimdark themes due to the medium. After a successful four-season run, it only made sense for Netflix to build on the success and continue with Castlevania: Nocturne. This time, the spin-off adapts the most well-known entries of the franchise: Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

]]> Thu, 28 Sep 2023 07:05:34 GMT https://collider.com/castlevania-nocturne-review/ Few comedy shows have found their precise niche over the last three years as skillfully as Starstruck. The BBC series created by Rose Matafeo (a verified triple threat who both stars and co-writes the episodes alongside Alice Snedden and Nic Sampson) is now in its third season, and while it does feel like the show is moving toward a natural endpoint, that doesn't mean the ride is any less heartbreaking or sparkling with humor this time around. We viewers fell in love with the romance between Jessie (Matafeo) and A-list actor Tom Kapoor (Nikesh Patel) when the two first decided to give it a go back in Season 1, only for them to realize in Season 2 that there was a stark difference between the optimistic fantasy of a love story and the day-to-day reality of their vastly divergent lifestyles. The emotional ups and downs that ensued were as entertaining as they were painful to watch — Jessie's tendency to always try and break the tension with a poorly-timed joke never helped all that much — and maybe we should have known it was too good to be true when the two ultimately reconciled by the finale, professing their love for each other in an inarguably filthy pond.

]]> Wed, 27 Sep 2023 20:00:30 GMT https://collider.com/starstruck-season-3-review/ Wes Anderson began his career with shorts. Four years before making his feature debut with 1996’s Bottle Rocket, the idea first started as a short starring two then-unknown actors, Owen and Luke Wilson. As Anderson’s career and ambitions have both grown, he’s often returned to shorts and always made them fascinating endeavors, whether in The Darjeeling Limited’s prologue short film, Hotel Chevalier, the Italian film homage of Castello Cavalcanti, and even his brilliant American Express commercial.

]]> Wed, 27 Sep 2023 18:46:48 GMT https://collider.com/the-wonderful-world-of-henry-sugar-review/ Take all the copious amounts of superpowered mayhem, blood, guts, sex, politics, and satire of The Boys and inject it into a college setting. It seems like a natural fit, right? That's the formula that makes Gen V, the first live-action spinoff of the mega-successful Prime Video series, so diabolically promising. When it was first announced that the Amazon-owned streaming service would be expanding the world of The Boys, many were weary that the series would slowly morph into the kind of corporate franchising it has always excelled at lampooning. The Boys has always felt like it's a step ahead of Marvel and DC as it's not like you need to watch countless streaming spinoffs, shorts, and movies to fully understand what the hell is going on onscreen.

]]> Wed, 27 Sep 2023 16:00:30 GMT https://collider.com/gen-v-review/ Is artificial intelligence really our enemy or is our fear of it the real problem? That is one of the moral dilemmas that The Creator attempts to address as it unpacks the very real and present threat of AI, through a heightened sci-fi lens. Seven years after the release of the critically acclaimed Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, director Gareth Edwards has returned to the world of high-stakes sci-fi—and this time, it is entirely of his own design.

]]> Tue, 26 Sep 2023 16:00:36 GMT https://collider.com/the-creator-review/ There is almost nothing worse than an unwelcome guest who overstays their welcome. Crumb Catcher manages to take the discomfort of such an occasion and make it a hundred times worse. All writer-director Chris Skotchdopole had to do was take an awkward new marriage, an off-the-rails waiter who wants to be an inventor, and a little sexual blackmail, and blend in the absolute horror of a home invasion to create one of the most uncomfortable and cringe-inducing films to screen this year.

]]> Mon, 25 Sep 2023 22:19:55 GMT https://collider.com/crumb-catcher-review/ In its first five minutes, Toll does a great job of showcasing how life is for lower-class Brazilians. Waking up at the crack of dawn, contemplating a house in dire need of maintenance all around, running to catch a shuttle because the public transportation system in poor neighborhoods is precarious. All so that you arrive in time to start a job that pays the bare minimum for you to survive and come back the following day. That initial segment is essential for us to understand Suellen (Maeve Jinkings) – especially when you consider what she will do in the following hour and a half.

]]> Sun, 24 Sep 2023 21:02:27 GMT https://collider.com/toll-movie-review/ There are certain stories that only specific cultures are able to tell, and Lost Ladies (Laapataa Ladies) is certainly one of them. From its initial premise to character behavior and resolutions, the movie is very specific to Indian culture, but it also finds a way to invite outsiders in for the ride. But none of it would have worked without the immense talent of its main cast.

]]> Sun, 24 Sep 2023 19:12:58 GMT https://collider.com/lost-ladies-review/ Barbarians, gore, glitter, time travel, humanoid hellhounds, toxic lesbians, and cannibalistic artists are some—but far from all—of the components in Bertrand Mandico’s avant-garde retelling of the Conan the Barbarian mythos. Like Mandico’s trippy sci-fi fantasy After Blue that disturbed Midnight Madness audiences in 2021, She Is Conann thrives on its own bizarre extravagance as it pushes the limits of substance and style.

]]> Sun, 24 Sep 2023 18:40:30 GMT https://collider.com/she-is-conann-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.One of the most powerful feelings that a movie can cause in viewers is the sensation of coming out of a screening with a complete understanding of who the characters are, their struggles, and why you should care about them. Even though it has a short running time, Mountains paints a vibrant picture of its main trio of characters without ever feeling rushed or slow-paced. It’s a perfect balance that many filmmakers can only dream of pulling off and one that director Monica Sorelle manages to achieve in her first feature film.

]]> Sat, 23 Sep 2023 21:00:38 GMT https://collider.com/mountains-movie-review/ I first encountered Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir's work back in 2021 at the Sundance Film Festival. I was enchanted by the short film "Shiluus" (then titled "Mountain Cat") about a girl in modern-day Mongolia who is brought to a local shaman by her mother. It is only when the shaman lifts his mask that we realize that the man beneath the mask is merely a boy, the same age as the girl. When they meet outside after the shaman ceremony, the two strike up a rapport that feels both flirtatious and youthful. I remember thinking back then that I would watch a full-length feature exactly about this concept. So, when I saw that Purev-Ochir had indeed turned that idea into a film called City of Wind, I felt compelled to watch it.

]]> Sat, 23 Sep 2023 20:05:34 GMT https://collider.com/city-of-wind-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn't exist.As much as Mike Flanagan has become synonymous with horror, his TV shows also heavily play on themes commonly found in classic Gothic literature. For some, horror and the Gothic are interchangeable, but Flanagan carefully weaves the latter into everything from The Haunting of Hill House to The Midnight Club. Gloomy settings, haunted locations, dreams and nightmares, an emotional and mental burden, a shroud of mystery, and a dark and stormy night turn a typical horror story into one that is Gothic. Gothic horror, an off-shoot of the larger umbrella of Romanticism, came about in the 1760s, but Edgar Allan Poe later became a figurehead of Gothic fiction in America. It only makes sense that Flanagan, who has breathed new life into the works of Shirley Jackson and Henry James, would take on one of the modern forefathers of the genre for his next adaptation.

]]> Sat, 23 Sep 2023 00:01:27 GMT https://collider.com/fall-of-the-house-of-usher-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.Witch stories often center around the feminine experience, but Falling Stars flips that concept on its head by presenting a tale focused on the folly of three brothers who find themselves on the receiving end of a curse that threatens their entire family. Set amidst the Inland Empire, in a world not too dissimilar from our own, Richard Karpala crafts a wholly unique piece of folklore that is steeped in its own history and carefully built up across the 80-minute runtime.

]]> Sat, 23 Sep 2023 00:01:27 GMT https://collider.com/falling-stars-movie-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.Over two decades ago, Robert Rodriguez introduced millennials to spycraft and Thumb Thumbs with his upbeat quartet of Spy Kids films, which embraced familial bonds and the potential children have to save the day through the optimism that only they possess. These hopepunk themes have carried over into Rodriguez’s other kid-friendly action comedies, like The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl and its subsequent star-studded Netflix sequel We Can Be Heroes, and permeate through the delightfully schmaltzy Spy Kids reboot Spy Kids: Armageddon.

]]> Fri, 22 Sep 2023 07:05:30 GMT https://collider.com/spy-kids-armageddon-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.

]]> Fri, 22 Sep 2023 04:01:26 GMT https://collider.com/no-one-will-save-you-review/ After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, over 15 million people were forced to evacuate their home country to seek refuge in Poland and nearby regions. In the Rearview takes viewers in the backseat of filmmaker Maciek Hamela's car as he picks up families and takes them out of the war zone. The subjects in this documentary are people who are leaving everything that they know and love behind, whether it is a beloved cow or a family member who can't make it on a long trip. Without much footage of the war itself, the firsthand accounts from the passengers in the car are enough to paint a picture of the terrors that they've endured and their need to find a better place to stay.

]]> Thu, 21 Sep 2023 23:06:37 GMT https://collider.com/in-the-rearview-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.At the end of Ted Kotcheff’s 1982 film, First Blood — about a traumatized Vietnam War veteran named John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) who returns home to find there is nothing left for him and active hostility towards his existence as a reminder of the disastrous campaign — the central conflict comes to a close without gunfire and instead via a more unexpectedly impactful moment of reflection. After an entire film spent battling the corrupt local sheriff and his cronies in the woods who tried to drive him away, Rambo gave himself up after breaking down in tears at all that had happened to him. It was a potent way in which to close and elevated an already well-crafted action film into something more resonant. What a shame they don’t make them like that anymore and instead just coast off their legacies.

]]> Thu, 21 Sep 2023 22:02:25 GMT https://collider.com/expendables-4-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.When it comes to the best horror movies, specificity of vision is key. Getting right up in the guts of a distinctly terrifying force, be it grounded in history, identity, or trauma, is the way to give a familiar genre story something more. In writer-director Bishal Dutta’s feature debut It Lives Inside, this is something that feels like it is happening about halfway. The particular details of its characters and their lives are compelling while the rest of the story itself is quite lacking. In many ways, it is hard to even consider this a horror film when it often feels like more of a dramatic thriller. There are moments of terror near the beginning, but it gets far too tangled up in a generic narrative that drowns out any sense of vision. Even with some striking visual moments and excellent sound design, it is all in service of regrettably very little.

]]> Thu, 21 Sep 2023 20:05:28 GMT https://collider.com/it-lives-inside-review/ The concept of separate but intertwining narratives isn’t a new one. From Oscar-winning films like Crash and Babel to holiday classics like Love Actually and Valentine’s Day, filmmakers have used the technique of interconnected stories for ages — some more effectively than others. The idea of tensions running high during a heatwave is a classic narrative too, like in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing and the recent adaptation of In the Heights.

]]> Thu, 21 Sep 2023 20:00:27 GMT https://collider.com/i-told-you-so-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn't exist.Television is gonna be a whole lot less horny and heartfelt without the goofy kids of Sex Education. Of course, they aren’t really kids any longer, as Laurie Nunn’s sharp Netflix series that first made its charming debut in 2018 has carried on for long enough that most are now clearly either adults or right on the cusp of becoming them. While this means the series is ending at the right time, it also gives this fourth and final season a sense of earned melancholy.

]]> Thu, 21 Sep 2023 07:06:31 GMT https://collider.com/sex-education-season-4-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn't exist.The John Wick franchise has become the pinnacle of modern American action. This kicked off with rather humble beginnings as the first film introduced us to a retired hitman who is forced to come out of retirement to seek revenge for the theft of his car and the killing of his puppy which was a gift from his late wife. Yet, over time, it has grown to something far greater than that initial premise. The John Wick franchise has become an action delight with its stylish action sequences set in iconic locations around the world. More than that, they’ve revitalized Keanu Reeves’ career and ushered in a renaissance for the actor.

]]> Wed, 20 Sep 2023 15:01:25 GMT https://collider.com/the-continental-john-wick-review/ "Don't start what you can't finish." In One Life, protagonist Nicky Winton (the younger version played by Johnny Flynn and an older version played by Anthony Hopkins) hears this advice before embarking on his most altruistic mission: saving Jewish children under precarious living conditions before the Nazis take over Prague near World War II. Although this task seemed impossible at the time, Winton didn't take "no" for an answer, and his decision resulted in over 669 children being redirected to foster care homes and protected by the British people before the war broke out. Based on a true story written by real-life Winton's daughter, Barbara Winton, it is a sensitive portrayal of a humanitarian hero who never saw himself that way.

]]> Tue, 19 Sep 2023 21:03:51 GMT https://collider.com/one-life-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn't exist.Love can be agonizing, but that doesn’t mean stories about it should themselves be painful to watch. Such is unfortunately the case thus far with Alice & Jack, a series about two thinly sketched people it strains to convince us are star-crossed lovers. Starring Domhnall Gleeson and Andrea Riseborough, two talented actors doing everything they can to give this largely shallow story some life, Victor Levin’s latest project takes us into the titular characters’ messy lives following a seemingly ill-fated first date. Over the course of the first two episodes of the series that recently premiered at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Alice (Riseborough) and Jack (Gleeson) find themselves all over the map emotionally in their relationship with each other. Rather than feel like an authentic depiction of the chaos of love, there is a stiffness to the experience that prevents the story from becoming the more dynamic character study it seems to be going for. There is room for Alice & Jack to grow, as it is meant to span 16 years of time that we have only seen the beginning of, but this is certainly a rocky start.

]]> Tue, 19 Sep 2023 21:01:52 GMT https://collider.com/alice-and-jack-review/ It is somewhat meta to criticize a film about a critic, particularly one who embraces vicious words and a peculiar style to maintain his readership. In The Critic, Ian McKellen plays Jimmy Erskine, a consolidated theater reviewer for The Daily Chronicle. That is, until his career in the newspaper is suddenly challenged by the new man in power, David Brooke (Mark Strong). Different from his father who originally ran the paper and hired Erskine as a critic, Brooke isn't fond of the writer's sharp comments, especially when they are targeted toward a young actress called Nina Land (played by Gemma Arterton). To keep his post, Erskine must use Brooke's affection for Land to his advantage, promising the actress to only publish positive comments on her work moving forward if she maintains an affair with Brooke. This web of lies and tug of war for power becomes messy and tragic, but it is a thrilling venture indeed.

]]> Tue, 19 Sep 2023 19:12:51 GMT https://collider.com/the-critic-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.When actors are well-established in Hollywood, with numerous accolades and onscreen roles that span film and TV, it is hard to think that they can still surprise you with their talent. At age 65, Annette Bening continues to impress in an unconventional biopic about swimming legend Diana Nyad. Instead of doing a deep dive into the swimmer's younger years up until her present-day accomplishments, NYAD centers on the later stage of her career when she finally achieved her dream of swimming from Cuba to Florida before anyone else. Although the journey wasn't an immediate success, the trials and errors in this film make the finish line that much sweeter as directed by Oscar-winning documentarians Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi.

]]> Mon, 18 Sep 2023 22:32:58 GMT https://collider.com/nyad-movie-review/ While wine-making, especially in France, has historically been a business dominated by men (surprise, surprise), one of the most recognized and luxurious brands of champagne in the world remains Veuve Clicquot. If you have a couple of French classes under your belt, you might know that "veuve" is the French word for "widow", and knowing that, you might wonder, why is this champagne brand called Widow Clicquot? Well, Thomas Napper has the answer for you in the form of Widow Clicquot, a romantic biopic based on the life of the titular "Grand Dame of Champagne" herself. Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin was married at 20 to François, the son of a wine-making family. Though the marriage was arranged, it quickly blossomed into a love match. Widow Clicquot is full of scenes between Haley Bennett's Barbe-Nicole and Tom Sturridge's François flourishing romance amid the vines of Reims, France. But this romance is tragically cut short when, seven years later, François dies and Barbe-Nicole is the only one left protecting her and her husband's legacy as the vultures begin to circle on the vineyard.

]]> Mon, 18 Sep 2023 20:27:01 GMT https://collider.com/widow-clicquot-review/ When two friends decide to go on a backpacking journey, the last place they expect to end up is in the middle of nowhere as bartenders serving the most women-thirsty and deranged men in town. Yet this is what Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick's Liv and Hanna, two Canadian friends looking to visit Australia and make a few bucks along the way, must endure in The Royal Hotel. This film directed by Kitty Green, who has previously worked with Garner in the MeToo-inspired The Assistant, is filled with tension and distress as these two friends slowly become a pair of fresh meat in the eyes of the local bar clientele.

]]> Mon, 18 Sep 2023 19:19:20 GMT https://collider.com/the-royal-hotel-review/ In 2017, directors DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman released Loving Vincent, a tremendous undertaking that includes 65,000 frames of film which were oil painted by hand to look like the work of Vincent van Gogh. Loving Vincent was a remarkable testament to the incredible painter, bringing his work to life in a fascinating and stunning way unlike we’d ever seen before in a film that rightfully earned an Academy Award nomination. Six years later, the Welchmans have returned with The Peasants, another unbelievably ambitious project that was filmed in live action and then painted over with 40,000 oil paintings. While the subject matter is far more obscure than the paintings of one of the world’s most famous painters, the result is equally as extraordinary.

]]> Mon, 18 Sep 2023 17:47:28 GMT https://collider.com/the-peasants-movie-review/ Not everyone is charming, eloquent, or genius enough to be an icon. Yet, Willem Dafoe's Walker Reade (loosely inspired by the founder of gonzo journalism, Hunter S. Thompson) has the right amount of rock star energy to make the cut. To be more specific, he is a washed-up, once-great author, who hasn't written anything meaningful for the past 15 years but is still raved about for his earlier work. In this adaptation of Cheryl Della Pietra's semi-autobiographical novel directed by Patricia Arquette, Walker Reade isn't the main character even though audiences can mistakenly think he is. The person who truly is front and center here is Camila Morrone's Ally Russo, a university grad who has just landed a job as Reade's nighttime assistant, expected to convince the author to write at least a page or two by 2 a.m. daily. Gonzo Girl is filled with LSD, gunshots, and journaling, but nothing substantial enough to make it more than a fun, one-time viewing high.

]]> Mon, 18 Sep 2023 16:20:52 GMT https://collider.com/gonzo-girl-movie-review/ “Every life is a trip,” says the legendary photographer Herman Leonard at the beginning of Chris Wilcha's documentary Flipside. “You are the captain of your boat.” In these opening moments, Flipside seems like it’s going to explore the life of Leonard, yet Wilcha—who helped adapt This American Life for television—zooms out even further, focusing on this statement by Leonard, and instead of looking at any one subject, decides to focus on larger ideas like the regrets we all have in life, how our dreams shift and evolve over the years, and how the unexpected can often be greater than what we expected.

]]> Sun, 17 Sep 2023 23:52:32 GMT https://collider.com/flipside-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.If there has been one trend that came out of the Toronto International Film Festival this year, it’s that a startling number of movies were directed by actors, many of which were directorial debuts. While some of them have been received very well like Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour, others were a bit of a misfire, like Chris Pine’s disastrous Poolman. Joining the latter, unfortunately, is Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning actor Kristin Scott Thomas’ directorial debut North Star. The 95-minute feature inspired by Thomas’ own life starring Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller, and Emily Beecham means well across its narrative rooted in familial dysfunction, but it never quite comes together for a coherent marriage of drama and heart.

]]> Sun, 17 Sep 2023 21:52:58 GMT https://collider.com/north-star-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't existt.Is there anything Kate Winslet can't do? Seriously, try and think if she's ever given a bad performance. Those dreadful Divergent movies and Movie 43 aside, she is the kind of actress that you can instantly gravitate towards. Such should be the case with Lee, a long-in-the-works passion project for Winslet, as it gives the Oscar-winning actress that daring and showy kind of role that she's received awards for in the past. She's playing the real-life photographer Lee Miller who took a picture of herself in Hitler's bathtub the same day the dictator shot himself in his bunker. This is a movie that should have been perfect for a captivating character study and gone inside the mind of the model-turned-war photographer.

]]> Sun, 17 Sep 2023 20:35:22 GMT https://collider.com/lee-review/ Remember Cinderella? You know, the classic fairy tale about a prince trying to find the foot that matches the shoe of his love interest that has been remade over and over? Well, Karan Boolani’s Thank You for Coming is, thankfully, not that story, but it does put a more slightly raunchy twist on some of its elements. Specifically, it follows the 32-year-old Kanika Kapoor (Bhumi Pednekar) who is looking for something much more than a shoe. She is trying to discover the person who she believes may have just given her the first orgasm she’s ever had. She has been trying to find the love of her life for quite a while, which she refers to as frogs in one of many fairy tale references, but no partner has managed to fulfill her deepest desires.

]]> Sun, 17 Sep 2023 20:00:25 GMT https://collider.com/thank-you-for-coming-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.It is safe to say that we are living in a new era of hitman movies from the John Wick franchise to David Fincher's The Killer, and Richard Linklater's Hit Man. On the small screen, we have Bill Hader's incredible dark comedy Barry, where a hitman finds his calling in the LA acting scene. Let's face it, when haven't hitman movies been cool? Sure, there were those two crappy video game movies starring Timothy Olyphant and Rupert Friend, and yeah there was that pretty dumb hitman romcom starring Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick, but beyond that, hitman stories are great. Michael Keaton likely believes this as well, as can be seen by his latest film Knox Goes Away, his first directorial effort since The Merry Gentleman in 2008.

]]> Sun, 17 Sep 2023 19:48:15 GMT https://collider.com/knox-goes-away-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.It's rare when autism has been portrayed accurately on screen. It is a sensitive subject to tackle, and while it might not be as stigmatized as it was even just 10 years ago, films like The Predator, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, and Music have characters that are built entirely around negative stereotypes. So often these characters are uniformly portrayed as robotic, emotionless, and even unlikable or obnoxious, while in real life people on the spectrum behave differently from one another.

]]> Sun, 17 Sep 2023 19:22:22 GMT https://collider.com/ezra-review/ Perfect Days, the latest film from the constantly-surprising filmmaker Wim Wenders, is largely about cleaning toilets. It’s also one of the best films of the year. In a career that has attempted everything from powerful love stories that transcend incredible distances (Wings of Desire, Paris, Texas), masterful documentaries (Buena Vista Social Club, Pina), and all matter of cinematic experiments, Perfect Days might be Wenders’ most lovely and vital work in decades, centered around a remarkably restrained and Cannes-winning performances from Koji Yakusho.

]]> Sun, 17 Sep 2023 18:59:27 GMT https://collider.com/perfect-days-review/ Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the writer-director behind such recent gems as Drive My Car and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, originally intended his latest film, Evil Does Not Exist, to be a series of silent visuals that would accompany new music from his Drive My Car composer Eiko Ishibashi. At the beginning of Evil Does Not Exist, it’s easy to think that’s exactly what we are going to see, as Ishibachi’s score plays over Hamaguchi’s shots of snow-covered trees under a gorgeous sky. The opening shot lasts almost too long, and the music comes to an abrupt stop, as if Hamaguchi is assuring us that Evil Does Not Exist will be more than just an accompaniment to another beautiful Ishibashi score.

]]> Sun, 17 Sep 2023 18:48:36 GMT https://collider.com/evil-does-not-exist-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.Whether it’s film or television, audiences have been consistently drawn to the charm (and frequent hilarity) of unlikely duos coming together. Add into the mix the complexities family brings to that pairing and you have one of the funniest movies of the year with Oscar-winning filmmaker Jessica Yu’s Quiz Lady, starring Awkwafina and Sandra Oh, as mismatched siblings in need of money to quickly pay off their mother’s gambling debts and retrieve their dog. Playing to the beat of ‘90s buddy comedies through witty dialogue and sharp slapstick humor, it manages to balance the laughs with strong, relationship drama for a spirited film about sisterhood rarely celebrated on the big screen.

]]> Sun, 17 Sep 2023 18:31:45 GMT https://collider.com/quiz-lady-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.The apocalypse is kind of boring. It wasn't always that way as films like The Road, 28 Days Later, and Mad Max: Fury Road have been able to make the subgenre feel fresh and inventive. Let's be honest with ourselves though, how many zombie apocalypses, robot uprisings, or pandemic-centric movies can we really handle anymore? At this point, a lot of these kinds of films feel like we've been there before.

]]> Sun, 17 Sep 2023 17:50:18 GMT https://collider.com/the-end-we-start-from-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.Director Christos Nikou got his start as a second assistant director for Yorgos Lanthimos on his deeply unsettling and strange 2009 film, Dogtooth—a work that took an odd concept and fleshed it out to a fascinating degree, exploring all the angles of this twisted world that it created. With his English-language debut, Fingernails, Nikou (along with co-screenwriters Sam Steiner and Stavros Raptis), takes an idea that seems ripe for a Lanthimos-esque approach, melding uncomfortable concepts with insights into love, and instead, creates a film that is too surface-level, too obvious, and just not compelling enough given the excellent notion at the center of this story.

]]> Sat, 16 Sep 2023 21:16:59 GMT https://collider.com/fingernails-movie-review/ There are several moments throughout Demián Rugna’s horror film When Evil Lurks where you feel the violence is coming even before it does. In one particular scene, the way it keeps cutting back to something seemingly inane outside of most of the characters' view as all of them shout in a panic is downright cruel. With every cut, the film is practically shouting what is about to happen. Rather than rob the moment of its bite, it makes it tear through the scene that much more effectively and sends everything flying that it had been setting up. While such elements take a bit to really sink their teeth into you, with a belabored setup and scattered diversions throughout dulling its impact, there is no letting go once it has you in its grasp.

]]> Sat, 16 Sep 2023 20:01:26 GMT https://collider.com/when-evil-lurks-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.Late into His Three Daughters, the tremendous new film from French Exit and The Lovers writer-director Azazel Jacobs, one of the title’s three daughters, Christina (Elizabeth Olsen), shares one of her memories with her soon-to-be passed father Vincent (Jay O. Sanders). She remembers a moment when the two were watching a movie where a character died, and Vincent—who had just lost his wife and Christina’s mother—was upset about the unrealistic way death was handled. To Vincent’s point, death and loss are topics that we all will deal with, and yet it’s extremely difficult for a film to effectively express what these situations are like. His Three Daughters isn’t one of these films. In fact, Jacobs’ latest feels like a now-essential film about grief, loss, and the absences our loved ones leave behind.

]]> Sat, 16 Sep 2023 20:00:16 GMT https://collider.com/his-three-daughters-review/ The Movie Teller is not a love letter to cinema like the movies about movies that precede it—it is a love letter to the community that grows from the seeds of storytelling. Based on Chilean author Hernán Rivera Letelier’s novel La Contadora de Películas, it is a sweeping, decades-spanning tale about the enduring spirit of humanity, as told by the film’s titular “Movie Teller” María Margarita.

]]> Sat, 16 Sep 2023 02:30:29 GMT https://collider.com/the-movie-teller-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.When we first meet Nicolas Cage’s entirely forgettable Paul Matthews in Dream Scenario, it’s—as the title implies—in a dream. His daughter Sophie (Lily Bird) has had a dream where random items are falling from the sky before she starts floating away. But standing there as his daughter flies away is Paul Matthews, sweeping up leaves by the pool, without hardly a reaction. As more people reveal that they’ve also had dreams about Paul, he’s similarly inert, an unnecessary addition to the hysteria of the dream. “Why am I always just standing there?,” Paul asks, and as we learn more about him, it seems as though he’s remained in this state of standstill in his real life for years.

]]> Thu, 14 Sep 2023 23:43:15 GMT https://collider.com/dream-scenario-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.Though it refers to something very different in the context of its story, The Beast is a fitting title for writer-director Bertrand Bonello’s latest film as it begins to convey the massive scope of the canvas he is painting on. A monumental and menacing science fiction journey through time, it's an unwieldy work that still manages to delicately wind its way around you before crushing the air from your lungs. The terror of the finale alone will forever etch itself in your memory. It is a long road, but it all connects in a way that becomes absolutely flooring.

]]> Thu, 14 Sep 2023 20:00:26 GMT https://collider.com/the-beast-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.In the literary world, Flannery O'Connor was a one-of-a-kind writer. While her works were often inspired by her devout Catholic faith, her writing went far beyond the kinds of stories that you heard during Sunday mass. O'Connor specialized in Southern Gothic tales which she used not only to employ her Catholicism, but to also explore themes of sex, race, disabilities, and atheism. Long story short, she was quite an interesting artist.

]]> Thu, 14 Sep 2023 17:03:56 GMT https://collider.com/wildcat-movie-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.Actors turning to directing isn't a new thing in Hollywood. Some of the most legendary filmmakers in the business started out as actors such as Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard, and Sofia Coppola. In recent years, stars like Greta Gerwig, Bradley Cooper, and Jordan Peele have transitioned to working behind the camera to great success. Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard is the latest performer looking to flex his filmmaking chops with Hell of a Summer, a slasher comedy he co-directed and co-wrote with his best friend Billy Bryk. What's even more interesting is that Wolfhard and Bryk are still only in their early 20s, compared to performers like Michael B. Jordan, who'd been working on-screen for over two decades before he directed this year's Creed III.

]]> Wed, 13 Sep 2023 22:36:27 GMT https://collider.com/hell-of-a-summer-movie-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.

]]> Wed, 13 Sep 2023 19:01:31 GMT https://collider.com/poolman-review/ With a film like Harmony Korine’s Aggro Dr1ft, it is important to take it on its own terms. There is a good chance that many will see it, grow more than a little frustrated with what he is doing, and then reject it without a second thought. While his films have never been for everyone, they are still worth reflecting on as an extension of his interest in American decay. It's then unfortunate that this is his most uninteresting film to engage with such ideas yet. It must be noted that Korine has repeatedly said he has grown disillusioned with conventional cinema and distanced himself from even referring to this as a movie. So, to take him at what it seems he is trying to do, the biggest question is whether Aggro Dr1ft is the type of work that successfully carves out a new type of visual storytelling. If Korine wants to chart a new path, let’s take that seriously and see where he takes us. After all, there have been plenty of great films that create their own cinematic grammar. Aggro Dr1ft is just not one of them.

]]> Wed, 13 Sep 2023 15:01:20 GMT https://collider.com/aggro-dr1ft-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn't exist.

]]> Wed, 13 Sep 2023 07:00:27 GMT https://collider.com/the-morning-show-season-3-review/ There must be something established right out of the gate about the drama series Bad Boy. It hails from the creator of Euphoria Ron Lesham, but it's important to specify that this is referring to the original series. In other words, don’t hold all the disastrous places where Sam Levinson’s remake ended up against this new story from him and his co-writer/creator Hagar Ben-Asher. This is even more important, considering that Bad Boy is quite good. Though there is still much more to experience, as only the first two episodes of the eight-episode series were shared for review, it already brings a refreshing degree of nuance to its story of a young kid who is sent to a juvenile detention facility. At its core, Bad Boy is a story about the stories we tell ourselves about our systems of “justice” and the ones those caught up in them must subsequently tell in order to survive. The result is a grim yet graceful portrait of youth in peril.

]]> Wed, 13 Sep 2023 03:06:25 GMT https://collider.com/bad-boy-review/ Action and comedy are usually the perfect combination because, let's face it, who doesn’t want some laughs alongside a kick-ass action romp? Boy Kills World, a new film from producer Sam Raimi and first-time director Moritz Mohr, feels like it's an amalgamation of various hit action flicks while also trying to create a satirical tone that directly winks at the audience. There’s clear inspiration from franchises like The Raid, Iron Sky, and Dragon Ball Z.

]]> Tue, 12 Sep 2023 22:43:55 GMT https://collider.com/boy-kills-world-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.“You have to live passionately and on your own terms,” begins Hit Man, a film that proves once again that director and co-writer Richard Linklater lives by this credo. In the last decade alone, we’ve seen Linklater wrap up one of the greatest movie trilogies ever made (Before Midnight), release a twelve-year passion project (Boyhood), a spiritual sequel to his classic Dazed and Confused (Everybody Wants Some!!), and most recently, a rotoscope animated pseudo-documentary (Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood). With Hit Man, Linklater once again takes on yet another style of film, creating his own version of a film noir, and ends up making his best film since Boyhood.

]]> Tue, 12 Sep 2023 21:05:00 GMT https://collider.com/hit-man-movie-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.What is it that we look for in stories? Is it to be entertained? Challenged? Moved? Placated? These are merely some of the many questions that are raised in writer-director Cord Jefferson’s terrific feature debut American Fiction in which the great Jeffrey Wright stars as Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison, a talented and thoughtful author who is struggling to sell his latest book. Though he has published acclaimed work before, there aren’t any publishers that are interested in more from him. Even him attending a writer’s festival in his hometown of Boston is met with an abysmally low turnout.

]]> Tue, 12 Sep 2023 17:14:45 GMT https://collider.com/american-fiction-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn't exist.

]]> Tue, 12 Sep 2023 17:01:25 GMT https://collider.com/the-other-black-girl-hulu-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.In the past fifteen years, David Yates has made eight movies—seven of which were in the Harry Potter franchise. Yates followed what filmmakers like Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón, and Mike Newell had set up, creating a satisfying conclusion to the tale of The Boy Who Lived, and the less-than-remarkable Fantastic Beasts series. A common refrain in Pain Hustlers, Yates’ first non-Harry Potter film since 2016’s The Legend of Tarzan, is the idea of a person selling what’s in their bag—basically meaning that you sell what you know. If you can get by on reading people, that’s a good way to get ahead, or maybe you can sell Avon or knives door-to-door. But if Pain Hustlers proves anything about Yates, it’s that his bag absolutely does not contain the ability to make his first post-Harry Potter film work.

]]> Tue, 12 Sep 2023 11:44:23 GMT https://collider.com/pain-hustlers-movie-review/ For the first several minutes of Dominic Savage’s Close to You, there is little to no dialogue as we are introduced to Elliot Page’s Sam. In the humble room that he is renting in Toronto, he awakens and gets ready for what is going to be a painful day ahead. However, at least for these opening moments, just simply getting to spend time with this character as he goes through his routine is a breath of fresh air. He makes toast with plenty of jam that he will then joke about as being a sign of his mental state. It is a moment of humor and pain that Page plays perfectly, telling us so much about whom this person is even though we only just met him. For this opening sequence, there is a patience that lets us see Sam’s fears slowly pour out as we learn that he is going to see his family for the first time since transitioning. Though this impending reunion hangs heavy over the scene, there is still a delicate nature to it that feels promising. It is then a shame that most everything that follows lacks this same subtlety.

]]> Tue, 12 Sep 2023 01:04:40 GMT https://collider.com/close-to-you-review/ Ava DuVernay has taken on some massive topics and projects in recent years, from bringing Martin Luther King Jr. to the screen with Selma, explaining the prison-industrial complex in 13th, and adapting one of the most beloved YA novels of all time with A Wrinkle in Time. But her latest film, Origin, might be the most complex and compelling project yet, as she attempts to turn Isabel Wilkerson’s nonfiction book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents”—which explores racism in the United States and the tools in place to put social hierarchies in place—into a film. It’s an odd project, one that only works in fits and starts, but once DuVernay gets all the pieces in place and unites Wilkerson’s thoughts, Origin comes together in unexpected ways.

]]> Tue, 12 Sep 2023 00:48:40 GMT https://collider.com/origin-movie-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.This year’s Toronto International Film Festival is packed with actors directing, with films like Kristen Scott Thomas’ North Star, Michael Keaton’s Knox Goes Away, and Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt. But maybe the most surprising of these is Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, Woman of the Hour, a tense, funny, and dark serial killer drama-comedy that proves she has a strong career ahead of her behind the camera.

]]> Mon, 11 Sep 2023 18:14:19 GMT https://collider.com/woman-of-the-hour-review/ “There is no greater threat to women than men,” Louis C.K. said in his 2013 stand-up special, Oh My God. “We’re the worst thing that ever happens to them.” In Sorry/Not Sorry, from directors Caroline Suh and Cara Mones, the stage presence C.K. had is described as “I’m fucked up, but I’m trying to do the right thing.” At the time, this made him endearing and like an unparalleled comedic genius in the eyes of many. A decade later, C.K.’s assertion is just one of many bits from his career that has aged like milk, feeling far more self-aware than he ever meant it to be. Only a few years later, C.K. would be accused of several incidents of sexual harassment—which he would admit were true. Yet after less than a year away from the public spotlight, C.K. would return with a vengeance, having made no penance for his actions, and even joking about the admittedly true allegations.

]]> Mon, 11 Sep 2023 03:00:29 GMT https://collider.com/sorry-not-sorry-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.The journey for Taika Waititi’s latest film, Next Goal Wins, has been a long and strange one. It had originally wrapped back in early 2020—before Waititi began production on last year’s Thor: Love and Thunder—and after Armie Hammer faced a variety of serious accusations with his part being replaced and expanded by Will Arnett. Following delays, reshoots, and nearly four years after it wrapped filming, Next Goal Wins has finally premiered, and the long-gestated movie is…an extremely okay sports film, accented by some quality Waititi jokes, but still doesn’t hit as hard as some of his best work can.

]]> Mon, 11 Sep 2023 02:40:50 GMT https://collider.com/next-goal-wins-taika-waititi-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.About midway through Memory, the latest drama from writer-director Michel Franco that stars Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard, there is a moment that lightly calls attention to how much time seems to have passed. In any other film, such a scene would be part of the natural way a filmmaker would keep their audience up to speed about the scope of the story. For Franco, it only brings attention to how almost unbound by time the story is. Both in joy and in pain, days can begin to fade into one another. That this film is then titled Memory, not to be confused with the terrible Liam Neeson action movie from last year, is merely one way that it pushes us to reflect on time. As its two central characters try to make sense of their painful past in increasingly unexpected yet uniquely potent ways, we are drawn into a world so completely that you can only give yourself over to the delicate rhythm it settles into.

]]> Sun, 10 Sep 2023 22:31:25 GMT https://collider.com/memory-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.It’s been almost two decades since Alexander Payne teamed up with Paul Giamatti for Sideways, which earned Payne his first Best Picture nomination and an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Now, with Payne’s first film since 2017’s Downsizing, he and Giamatti have reunited for The Holdovers, a 70s throwback comedy that screams of a love for Hal Ashby and gives Giamatti maybe his best performance yet. The Holdovers might be the most conventional film Payne has made—which isn’t a flaw by any stretch—yet it’s also the most wonderful, big-hearted, genuinely touching films of his entire career and one of his finest stories to date.

]]> Sun, 10 Sep 2023 22:17:38 GMT https://collider.com/the-holdovers-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn't exist.

]]> Sun, 10 Sep 2023 18:15:26 GMT https://collider.com/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-netflix-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.To get it out of the way, there is an inescapable element of writer-director Niclas Larsson’s debut feature Mother, Couch that feels increasingly similar to Beau is Afraid. The precise reasons about why will require being rather coy, but there is a shared interest the two have when it comes to psychological reflections on childhood trauma connected to a matriarch. However, where that film saw Ari Aster put himself and Joaquin Phoenix on trial, this one lacks any deeper exploration or self-reflection. Based on the novel Mamma i Soffa by Jerker Virdborg, it is a film that starts out strongly with a silly sense of uncertainty that is good fun only to slowly but surely bury any complexity with a bluntly wielded narrative shovel.

]]> Sun, 10 Sep 2023 01:35:16 GMT https://collider.com/mother-couch-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.Early on in Finestkind, the aspiring fisherman Charlie (Toby Wallace) asks why the other guys on the crew keep saying the word “finestkind.” Its usage seems indeterminable, as it keeps getting used in different contexts, making it hard to nail down, and even the boat owned by Tommy Lee Jones’ Ray, we will come to learn, is named “Finestkind.” We’re told that the word can be whatever you want it to be, that it can change from sentence to sentence, what matters is the inflection and intention. Finestkind, then, is the perfect title for this film, an unremarkable blend of different ideas, wildly escalating stakes, and full of actors who deserve better.

]]> Sat, 09 Sep 2023 23:21:48 GMT https://collider.com/finestkind-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.

]]> Sat, 09 Sep 2023 23:00:26 GMT https://collider.com/a-haunting-in-venice-review/ This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.Among some of the first relationships we ever experience, the dynamic between a mother and daughter is often fraught with complex phases and emotions. What starts as a basic human need filled with strong admiration and love, begins to shift over time and evolve into a struggle between the past and present. Films like Terms of Endearment, Lady Bird, and even Everything Everywhere All Once have explored the turbulent nature of mother-daughter relationships by creating strong, intergenerational dialogues. But as they each unveil a layer brimming with culture through the bonds of time, it is Fawzia Mirza’s directorial feature The Queen of My Dreams starring Amrit Kaur, Nimra Bucha, and Hamza Haq that finds a new one. It is a film that is a beautiful love letter to mothers and daughters through a compassionate lens rooted in love for family and the grief of not being fully seen.

]]> Sat, 09 Sep 2023 12:42:26 GMT https://collider.com/the-queen-of-my-dreams-review/