Reviews

Good

good

Director Andrew Haigh’s last movie was ALL OF US STRANGERS, which is amazing if you haven’t had a chance to see it. His latest movie has now been released in a couple film festivals, called A LONG WINTER. It’s a beautifully shot but incredibly slow film about grief, isolation, and the things families leave unsaid. There's a lot to appreciate here, but I can't say I was completely invested throughout. The cinematography is easily one of the film's biggest strengths. The snowy landscapes are stunning, and you can almost feel the loneliness and cold coming through the screen. Fred Hechinger gives a really understated, vulnerable performance, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach is equally convincing as a father who doesn't know how to deal with his emotions. My biggest issue is the pacing. I appreciate a slow-burn drama, especially one that relies on silence and subtle performances, but there were stretches where I felt the film was barely moving forward. The movie had a few interesting ideas, but it never followed through with them, making me frustrated. There's definitely something powerful underneath it all, I just wish the journey getting there had been a little more engaging. Overall, A LONG WINTER is a thoughtful, atmospheric film with strong performances, but one that ultimately left me admiring it more than connecting with it.

Perfect

Tenía mis dudas con esta secuela. La original de 1998 no fue un éxito en su momento, pero se volvió de culto por la química de Sandra Bullock y Nicole Kidman como las hermanas Owens. Casi 28 años después, *Practical Magic 2* intenta hacer lo mismo pero con tres generaciones.La química entre Bullock y Kidman sigue intacta, se nota que se llevan bien fuera de cámaras. La dirección de Susanne Bier le da un tono más serio y menos comedia noventera que la primera, y visualmente está mejor trabajada, con esa casa de las Owens iluminada con velas que sale en tu póster.

666

Well, Colleen Hoover’s novels keep getting adapted. The newest one is VERITY. I went into this movie expecting a dark, disturbing psychological thriller that would leave me questioning everything. Instead, I got a Lifetime movie with an A-list budget and the confidence of someone who just discovered what a plot twist is. Every lingering stare, dramatic pause, and ominous musical cue feels like the filmmakers are standing behind me whispering, "Isn't this messed up?" Yes, movie. I get it. You can stop elbowing me in the ribs now. The performances are certainly... performances. Everyone seems to be competing in the International Championships of Looking Deeply Troubled, and nobody is willing to settle for silver. Subtlety apparently died during pre-production, and nobody bothered to investigate. My biggest issue is that this movie mistakes irrational behaviour for psychological complexity. Nobody communicates like a normal person. Nobody makes a remotely sensible decision. Most of the conflict could be resolved with one reasonable conversation, but apparently that would bring the movie to an abrupt 25-minute conclusion. Instead, everyone remains aggressively suspicious, emotionally unstable, and inexplicably horny. And then there are the twists. Oh, the twists. This movie throws so many at you that eventually they stop feeling like revelations and start feeling like the screenwriter desperately shaking a Magic 8 Ball. By the final act, I wasn't gasping in shock. I was mentally calculating how much longer I had to spend with these deeply unpleasant people. The movie desperately wants to be sexy and dangerous, but much of it feels like someone adapted a particularly horny Reddit confession and gave it dramatic lighting. There's nothing wrong with trashy entertainment, but this seems convinced it's delivering something far more sophisticated. But here's the annoying part: I was entertained. Not always for the intended reasons, but entertained nonetheless. I laughed, rolled my eyes, and occasionally even found myself genuinely invested. Unfortunately, those moments were usually interrupted by someone making another decision that would get them immediately disqualified from operating heavy machinery. Ultimately, I wanted a genuinely unsettling thriller that would get under my skin. Instead, I got beautiful people making catastrophic decisions in expensive surroundings while the soundtrack repeatedly informed me that something sinister was happening. Thanks for the heads-up. I never would've guessed. Overall, VERITY is not quite a good movie, but not quite a complete disaster. The real mystery isn't what happened in that house. It's how anyone involved survived this long without basic communication skills.

1122

There’s a new Dreamworks animated movie out now called FORGOTTEN ISLAND. It’s the 1990’s in the Philippines. The rowdy and rebellious Jo (H.E.R) meets the ambitious and intelligent Raissa (Liza Soberano). They quickly become best friends, adding charms to their friendship bracelets for every core memory they make together. When they fall into a portal and land in Natalimutan Island (“forgotten” in Tagalog), they encounter many characters from Filipino folklore, such as Raww the were-aspin, a Tiyanak, a Batibat, a Kapre, a Duwende, a Kataw, and a fearsome Manananggal. I had a great time learning about these mythical beings, as well as Filipino culture in general. At its core, this is a movie about friendship, especially that painful point when you realize that growing up can mean growing apart. Jo and Raissa’s friendship feels genuine, and the idea of memories slowly disappearing gives the story a surprisingly emotional weight. It made me think about the people who have come in and out of my own life and how even the friendships that don’t last forever can still shape who we become. The animation is incredible. It’s colorful, weird, chaotic, beautiful, and constantly inventive. The island feels unpredictable and genuinely magical. It’s funny, imaginative, heartfelt, and much more bittersweet than I expected. By the end, I cared so much about these two and their friendship. Overall, FORGOTTEN ISLAND is definitely one of my favorite animated movies this year. Go support original movies!

It’s not that often I can say the following, Tom Cruise is in a new movie that’s not MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. The movie is called DIGGER, a movie that will be debated and talked about for a very long time. On the surface, it’s a dark comedy about an oil magnate Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise) who is desperate to dig himself out of a situation that he caused. This movie is a furious, absurd, and surprisingly thoughtful satire about a world that knows it’s destroying itself but still looks to the same wealthy, powerful people who helped create the problem to save it. Cruise is terrific, turning his familiar movie-star charisma into something grotesque. He’s funny, pathetic, magnetic, and terrifying because Digger genuinely seems to believe his own mythology. The film understands that enormous power and enormous insecurity can exist in the same person. But what stayed with me most is how the movie eventually turns its criticism toward us. It isn’t satisfied with mocking billionaires, corporations, or political hypocrisy. It questions whether outrage itself has become entertainment—whether we watch stories about catastrophe, recognize all the problems, congratulate ourselves for understanding them, and then go right back to living the same way. Even the film’s excess feels purposeful. It’s loud, messy, exhausting, hilarious, ugly, and visually beautiful, sometimes all at once. It condemns spectacle while deliberately becoming a spectacle itself. That contradiction is what makes it work. Underneath all the insanity is a bleak question: Why do we keep waiting for powerful people to save us from problems their power helped create? It doesn’t offer an easy answer. It makes us sit with the question.

good

gg

There’s a new survival thriller called HEART OF THE BEAST directed by David Ayer. Ex-soldier James (Brad Pitt) and his best friend Odin the combat dog (played by four different dogs) are looking for peace after experiencing war. When their plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness, they are pulled back into a world of survival, now also struggling with PTSD. This movie pulled me in much faster than I anticipated. What initially seemed like a familiar wilderness survival story quickly became something I was completely invested in, especially once the danger started closing in. One of my favorite things was the wilderness itself. It looks absolutely beautiful, but there's always this feeling that something could go wrong at any moment. I loved that contrast. The isolation makes even some of the quieter scenes feel tense. I also really liked the relationships at the center of the story. The quieter moments give us enough time to care about the characters, which makes the danger feel much more meaningful when things start going wrong. The survival sequences were especially effective. I appreciated that the movie doesn't constantly rush from one action scene to another and actually let the setting and characters breathe. It's not completely perfect. A couple of story beats were predictable, and there were a few character decisions that frustrated me. I also would've liked a little more development in certain areas, but those are minor complaints. Overall, HEART OF THE BEAST is an ode to man’s best friend. It ended up being exactly the kind of survival thriller I enjoy: tense, beautifully shot, character-driven, and with enough heart to make the danger matter.

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I was never really interested in reality shows. I’m still not, but I did see PRIMETIME, the new dramatic biopic from first-time director Lance Oppenheim. This is about NBC anchor and host of the series To Catch a Predator, Chris Hanson, played by Robert Pattinson. What really worked for me was the way it explores our relationship with entertainment and other people’s suffering. We’re constantly surrounded by stories about terrible things happening to real people, whether through television, social media, documentaries, or the news. We watch because we’re curious or because we simply can’t look away. I also liked that the movie doesn’t just blame the people behind the camera. There has to be an audience for this kind of entertainment to exist, which makes us part of the equation too. There’s something uncomfortable about watching these characters cross increasingly disturbing lines while realizing that we’re being entertained by it at the same time. The atmosphere really worked for me as well. Even during the quieter moments, there’s a feeling that something isn’t right. Watching people slowly justify choices that would have seemed unthinkable at the beginning made the darker moments much more effective. It isn’t perfect. The pacing dragged in a few places, and some of the ideas deserved more exploration. There were moments where the movie introduced something really interesting and moved on before digging into it as much as I wanted. Pattinson, Merritt Wever, and Skylar Gisondo are all amazing. Overall, PRIMETIME left me thinking about how easily someone’s worst moment can become someone else’s entertainment. It’s easy to criticize the people exploiting those stories while forgetting that somebody still has to be watching. I was watching too. You know how this looks, right?

When was the last time you cried over a comic-book? I was an avid collector as a child, and when ''Iron Man'' came out and Marvel decided to take a risk on a recovering actor to lead the way, I was prepared for some disappointments.
Well, shame on me.
I do not care what any of the old guard (cough, Scorsese) say about comic-book films. If the audience is moved by them, then they have done their job, and the theatre I watched this one in proves my point. There was a silence at the end of the movie that even a pin drop could not disturb, with tears and sobs echoing quietly in the room. I was not immune, even if I expected those losses and knew that the show would go on.
It was an epic ride that simply had to get better.
Well done.

It was a fun ride, and often felt as though they would continue to top themselves with these films. But this was the right place to end the ride of the Avengers doing their best to save the world, save the team and save themselves. It was quite an experience to watch this and Infinity War in the theatre with a crowd that was there for every high and low, and it was also edifying to see Robert Downey, Jr. close his role as Tony Stark with the ultimate sacrifice. We all ''loved him 3000'', and he was also the reason why I saw ''Iron Man'' several times and hoped that he could help carry us all with him.
A happy cinematic memory.

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