Browsing: movies

When it comes to major media conglomerates, no company has more magic than the Walt Disney Company. The place where we learn to wish and dream as our imagination takes flight, Disney has been a major part of our lives in one way or another. The 21st century featured two major acquisitions for Disney to add to the roster: Star Wars and Marvel. Both media franchises had established themselves as major players in the pop culture lexicon, and now, with Disney at the helm, those opportunities and budgets increased exponentially! Playing in the Star Wars or Marvel universe is a…

In the wonderful world of The Sims 4, players are able to show their creativity, shaping lives and craft wholesome stories. However, for those looking to push the boundaries of the life simulation game, mods offer some exciting and strange changes to make The Sims 4 a wacky and interesting place. Mods often make the game more realistic and interesting, while some can add quirky additions to make a player either laugh out loud or lean back in shock. The Sims 4 base game often has features that don’t make sense, but there are mods that confuse this game even…

A cursed teenager dreams of escape in Thanasis Neofotistos’ folkloric debut feature, The Boy with the Light-Blue Eyes. Set in a remote Greek mountain community governed by superstition, it follows Petros (Giorgos Karydis), a sullen adolescent forced to wear protective goggles by his domineering grandmother and anxiously-devoted mother. The official explanation is that his eyes are dangerously sensitive to light. The real reason, whispered through the village like scripture, is far older and crueler, is that Petros’ pale blue eyes carry the evil eye.Shot over twelve years, Neofotistos builds the world of this film with an impressive tactile force. The landscape is vital…

GOLAN have been one of Romania’s most influential electronic acts since emerging from Bucharest in 2013. Among the first local groups to successfully fuse electronic production with live instruments, vocal melodies, jazz influences, and organic songwriting, GOLAN quickly became a defining force within the Romanian alternative scene.Over the past decade, the group has evolved from festival favourites into international performers, experimenting with formats ranging from intimate live sets to full orchestral productions. Since 2022, however, GOLAN have focused their creative energy on the dance floor, developing a hybrid performance style that merges infectious house grooves, minimal-inspired rhythms, live vocals, and instrumental…

It’s been 16 years since Jesse Eisenberg debuted his iconic, neurotic portrayal of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in David Fincher’s The Social Network.The role earned Eisenberg a Best Actor nomination at the 83rd Academy Awards, and cemented the then 27-year-old actor as an A-list talent in Hollywood.That said, many were surprised when it was announced Jeremy Strong would play Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin’s upcoming Social Network follow-up, The Social Reckoning. But Sorkin, who wrote the screenplay for the first film and both wrote and directed the Oscar-winning film’s forthcoming spiritual successor, says he tried really hard to get Eisenberg to…

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Obsession. One of the big hits of the year so far has been Curry Barker’s Obsession, the inventive horror tale that takes unrequited love to dangerous extremes. Michael Johnston plays Bear, a mild-mannered music store employee who is in love with his friend and colleague, Nikki (Indi Navarette). Bear buys a mysterious One Wish Willow, a trinket that offers the user one wish if they snap it in half. After being turned down romantically by Nikki, he breaks the willow and wishes for her to love him more than anything else. The wish…

Jinsei is a wild movie that animation fans can’t sleep on. Largely the work of filmmaker Ryuya Suzuki, Jinsei takes place across the length of a century. For the most part, it focuses on a single man who throughout his life, is known as everything from a weirdo to a celebrity to a “god,” all while dealing with the lingering trauma of his childhood. A relatively low-key anime movie even when World War III breaks out or aliens show up, that blunt reality of Jinsei is what makes it so effective. It’s emotionally powerful and frequently shocking, especially when its…

“I cannot send you a glacier, but at least I can send you this.” Time and Water sets out its purpose early on. Directed by Sara Dosa, whose Oscar-nominated Fire of Love (2022) similarly transformed the natural world into something deeply human, this documentary arrives as a message in a bottle for future generations. Guided by the writings of Icelandic poet Andri Snær Magnason, the film blends family photographs, archival footage and contemporary images of Iceland’s disappearing glaciers, preserving not only the landscape itself but the memories bound to it. Dosa approaches an overwhelming subject through profoundly personal storytelling, avoiding any brash polemics along the way. Magnason’s narration…

A provocative Haitian drama exploring faith, desire, freedom, and the boundaries of social moralityMarie Madeleine is an intimate character-driven drama set in the coastal city of Jacmel, Haiti. Written, directed, and led by Gessica Geneus, the film follows Marie Madeleine, a sex worker who lives according to her own rules outside the expectations of religion, tradition, and social convention. Her life changes when she encounters Joseph, a deeply devoted evangelical Christian whose rigid faith begins to unravel after their meeting. As attraction grows between them, both characters are forced to confront their beliefs, desires, and assumptions about morality. What begins as…

So many people do not understand how Rotten Tomatoes works.The “Tomatometer” number attached to films on the site is not a test score, the most common misinterpretation I hear. If a film — say Gymkata — receives a 95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, that is not the equivalent of an “A” grade. That is the equivalent of 95 out of 100 critics giving it a positive review. Those reviews could be raves; they could also be the equivalent of a shrug. If 95 critics all say a movie is basically okay, then that movie gets a 95 percent, receives a “Certified Fresh” badge,…