Browsing: movies

The various members of the Bat-Family share an obvious visual motif when fighting crime on the streets of Gotham City, yet for one hero, Jason Todd aka Red Hood, wearing a giant red bat symbol across his chest not only has a hidden meaning, but outs him in ways that practically become a weakness. Thhe tactical mistake was brought to readers’ attention during 2016’s Red Hood and the Outlaws series, by Scott Lobdell and Dexter Soy. When Red Hood crosses paths with the ruthless Batman villain Black Mask and his Superman clone, Red Hood’s choice in costume logos is unexpectedly…

When looking over the output of Osgood Perkins, it’s clear that this is a filmmaker of many ideas, possibly more than he can fully execute to their highest potential. In the space of just over a year, Perkins has established himself as one of the most prominent names in contemporary horror, delivering one of 2024’s most divisive films, Longlegs, before swiftly following that up with an enjoyable albeit underwhelming Stephen King adaptation, The Monkey. Sure enough, his latest effort, Keeper, is set to be followed by another feature set to be released next year. You’ve got to admire the man’s enthusiasm, but pal, what’s the rush? Perkins…

Festivals: Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day (2024) by Ivona Juka: Defiance, Art, and Survival Under a Totalitarian Gaze top of pagebottom of page

It’s been a decade since the Star Trek movie franchise went anywhere, boldly or otherwise. But now it looks like the long-awaited next film in the iconic sci-fi series is making progress.Deadline reports that Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, the team behind Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, are ready to “write, produce and are attached to direct” a new Star Trek film.Despite Goldstein and Daley’s previous collaborations with Chris Pine, who played Captain Kirk in the most recent Star Trek movies and also headlined their Dungeons & Dragons movies, Deadlines sources claim their movie “is a completely new take on the Star Trek universe and not connected to any previous…

Sometimes, the biggest issue with franchise films is how they cannot help but obsess over the past. Whether it is a belief that all fans care about are cameos or Easter eggs, or the fact that some projects are clearly studio-driven, many pieces of larger IPs feel more like fan service than their own cohesive narrative. An example of this was Alien: Romulus. While Romulus was a good film in its own right, there were clear issues with how much effort it made to highlight its similarities to past projects. However, Predator: Badlands emphasized this issue by how much more…

The BBC’s Sherlock is one of the best and most popular modern adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, but it betrayed its fans a couple of times during its run. Created by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, Sherlock brought the Great Detective and his accompanying characters to modern-day London, adapting some of his most notable cases to modern issues and technology. Sherlock had a strong start, with a lot of praise going towards Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance as Holmes and Martin Freeman as Watson, but the show’s decline began with its third season. Sherlock’s fourth and final season was a big disappointment, and…

Despite only running between 2004 and 2007, To Catch a Predator had an indelible impact on popular culture. Fronted by the journalist Chris Hansen, the 44-minute episodes became must-see TV, as law enforcement set up sting operations around the US to lure sex offenders into the open using actual minors as decoys. The series was also directly responsible for the suicide of a government official, who shot himself shortly after the production team arrived at his house. Soon after that, the show was cancelled, but the genie was out of the bottle.Such a fascinating and formative example of the True Crime Industrial Complex…

sleepazoid is an emerging alt-rock quintet defined by their powerful, genre-fusing sound. The band’s lineup includes vocalist and guitarist Nette France, bassist Josef Pabis, drummer and vocalist Luca Soprano, and dual guitarists George Inglis and Jim Duong. Their collective sound is distinct and assured, characterized by a fusion of several intense genres. Specifically, they blend the raw energy of grunge, the atmospheric depth of shoegaze, and the driving rhythms of post-punk. This compelling mix places them stylistically alongside bands like Mannequin Pussy, Wolf Alice, Pretty Sick, and Fontaines D.C. The collective demonstrated this assured sound in their 2024 debut release, running with…

Labubu. The Movie.With the fuzzy, vaguely creepy dolls remaining hugely popular all around the globe, Sony has made a deal to develop a movie based on the property.According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio “picked up the screen rights to the Chinese doll brand with the aim of making a movie and, in success, launching a franchise.”They don’t have any details about a story or about the creators at this point, nor whether the film will be live-action or animated. (Sony’s animation studio is behind such major recent hits as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Kpop Demon Hunters.)The little critters originated in China in…

In the 1980s, television made humiliation look like harmless fun. Forty years later, Edgar Wright calls it prophecy. The path to The Running Man began with It’s a Knockout! and 3-2-1, two surreal British game shows that turned confusion and chaos into national entertainment. On It’s a Knockout!, ordinary people in costumes stumbled along obstacle courses while the crowd cheered. On 3-2-1, contestants solved riddles so bizarre that even the winners often left empty-handed. Together, they formed a picture of spectacle without empathy, a kind of cheerful cruelty that fascinated Wright. At a premiere screening followed by a Q&A at…