Tag: 2023

Den Store Stilhed (2023) | REVIEW

Kristine Kujath Thorp plays the Norwegian nun Alma in Katrine Brocks’ DEN STORE STILHED — PHOTO: Mia Mai Dengsø Graabæk, DFF.

International Title: The Great Silence — Directed by Katrine Brocks — Screenplay by Katrine Brocks and Marianne Lentz.

Katrine Brocks’ The Great Silence follows Alma (played by Kristine Kujath Thorp), a Norwegian nun in a Catholic convent in Denmark. Alma is preparing for her perpetual vows — her marriage to God, as some characters put it — when her Danish half-brother Erik (played by Elliott Crosset Hove), a recovering alcoholic, stops by to ask for his half of the inheritance that their father left her. However, Alma, formerly named Silje, has already donated the entire inheritance to the convent so that they can repair their leaky ceiling. Hoping that Alma can also repair her relationship with her brother, the Mother Superior bends the rules and invites Erik to stay for a few days. Having him back in her life brings back traumatic memories that she may now finally have to confront.

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Every ‘Insidious’ Film Ranked (2023)

Insidious Film Posters (2010-2023)

Recently, the Insidious and Conjuring scream king Patrick Wilson got the chance to sit in the director’s chair to direct the latest and potentially final Insidious film for the big screen, Insidious: The Red Door. As I wrote in that review, this series is the “lower-budgeted and less revered film series sibling” to The Conjuring, but it has a passionate fan base that always makes these films successful in movie theaters around the world. I quite liked Wilson’s film, but how does it compare to the other films in the franchise? Well, let’s have a look.

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They Cloned Tyrone (2023) | REVIEW

(L-R) Teyonah Parris, Jamie Foxx, and John Boyega in THEY CLONED TYRONE — PHOTO: NETFLIX.

Directed by Juel Taylor — Screenplay by Tony Rettenmaier and Juel Taylor.

Last week, moviegoers flocked to theaters — most of them dressed in pink — and walked down the pink carpet to take part in the movie event of the year known as Barbenheimer — i.e. the simultaneous release of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. We were lucky to have two films that were so excellent released on the same day so that people of all ages could celebrate movie theaters all over the world. However, that same weekend, there was also a third film released that cineastes ought to check out. Released on Netflix just last week, Juel Taylor’s feature directorial debut They Cloned Tyrone is a genuinely funny and stylized sci-fi comedy that I highly recommend to audiences looking for something special from the comfort of their own home. 

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Oppenheimer (2023) | REVIEW

Cillian Murphy is outstanding as the titular theoretical physicist in Christopher Nolan’s OPPENHEIMER — PHOTO: Universal Pictures.

Directed by Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk; Tenet) — Screenplay by Christopher Nolan.

In 1965, famed physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer appeared on a television broadcast, and, on said broadcast, he gave an account of how people reacted and what went through his head during the so-called ‘Trinity Test’ in 1945, when Oppenheimer and a group of physicists had successfully created and detonated the first nuclear weapon. Oppenheimer claimed that a specific line from the Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita popped into his head: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” It is a chilling quote that has echoed through generations and had a life of its own. For the twelfth feature film in his oeuvre, the immensely popular auteur filmmaker Christopher Nolan opted to tell J. Robert Oppenheimer’s story. It’s a film about a man full of paradoxes, such as how he became a political figure with strong left-wing disarmament views but was also the man who is known for having willfully created a weapon that once dwarfed all others and forever changed warfare and foreign policy. But it is also a film that gets to the heart of the rot of the American soul in the 20th Century. It is an intimate account of the complicated headspace of a historically significant genius, but it is also a haunting and damning cautionary tale about learning the wrong lessons, naivete, guilt, covetousness, and ripple effects. It is an astoundingly brilliant achievement and much more than your average biopic.

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Barbie (2023) | REVIEW

(L-R) Ryan Gosling as ‘Ken’ and Margot Robbie as ‘Barbie’ in Greta Gerwig’s BARBIE — PHOTO: Warner Bros. Pictures.

Directed by Greta Gerwig (Little Women) — Screenplay by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story).

This weekend, the movie event of the year finally arrived with the release of the escapist comedy and social satire picture Barbie and the dark and dense historical epic and biopic Oppenheimer. The simultaneous release of two films from modern auteurs Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan couldn’t just be counterprogramming. Rather, the internet decided that it had to be a meme (Barbenheimer, it’s been dubbed). Theater owners all over the world ought to be rejoicing at the internet’s impromptu online public support for a double billing of two films that in most ways couldn’t be farther apart. Moviegoing audiences are also in luck, because it just so happens that both films are terrific. Although the very pink and mostly lighthearted IP-driven comedy from Greta Gerwig may, from the outset, seem trivial when compared to the adult-oriented three-hour Christopher Nolan epic about our ability to destroy ourselves, the Barbie movie does have quite a bit to say, and it would be wrong to disregard it as a cynical cash grab or a marketing exercise. This one is as fun and lighthearted as it is critical.

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‘Servant,’ ‘Your Honor,’ ‘Love and Death,’ and ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’ (2023) | Bite-Sized Reviews

(L-R) Elizabeth Olsen in HBO Max’s LOVE AND DEATH; Bryan Cranston in Showtime’s YOUR HONOR; Jennifer Garner in Apple TV+’s THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME; Toby Kebbell in Apple TV+’s SERVANT.

This year, some of my favorite recent shows — like Succession and Barry — have come to an end. Both of their final seasons were tremendous, and they are both arguably the best seasons of their series. Since those shows have ended, I thought it would be fitting to fill you in on my thoughts on four other series that ended this year. Two of these are limited series, and the remaining two are ongoing series. Are any of them worth your time? Well, let’s have a look.

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Bird Box Barcelona (2023) | REVIEW

(L-R) Gonzalo De Castro, Georgina Campbell, Mario Casas and Naila Schuberth in BIRD BOX BARCELONA — PHOTO: Andrea Resmini / Netflix.

Directed by Álex and David Pastor — Screenplay by Álex and David Pastor.

In the late 2010s, sensory-based apocalyptic horror-thrillers were all the rage. John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place (2018) was a box office success, spawned a sequel, and was Oscar-nominated. Susanne Bier’s Bird Box (2018) was met with mixed reviews but was still a massive hit for Netflix yet it also inspired a hazardous and controversial social media blindfold challenge. Then there was something like John R. Leonetti’s The Silence (2019), which was another Netflix release, but Leonetti’s film was quite rough in most ways. Well, now Netflix has decided to cash in on the brand recognition of Bird Box by releasing its first sequel titled Bird Box Barcelona, a mostly Spanish-languaged spin-off that I don’t think has all that much new to say, unfortunately. 

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Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One (2023) | REVIEW

Hayley Atwell and Tom Cruise driving a yellow Fiat 500 through Rome in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING, PART ONE — Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie (M:I – Fallout) — Screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen.

During, and in the immediate aftermath of, the COVID-19 pandemic, certain films tried and failed to bring loads of people back into theaters. When all else — including a pretty good and underappreciated Christopher Nolan film — failed to win back the moviegoing audience, Tom Cruise, in true Ethan Hunt fashion, accepted the mission to ‘save cinema.’ And, well, he sort of did. His and Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun Maverick (in which Cruise’s hero, in a way, sets out to prove that human beings are more capable than unmanned fighter aircrafts) was such a hit that Steven Spielberg reportedly proclaimed that Tom Cruise, now 61 years of age, “saved Hollywood’s ass,” and that his film might have “saved the entire theatrical distribution.” “Is there anything Tom Cruise can’t do?” you might ask. He seems adamant to test that question out with the awe-inspiring stunts that he insists on doing each and every time he headlines a major motion picture nowadays. Now, with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One, Tom Cruise, the savior of the theatrical industry, is back as Ethan Hunt, the IMF agent and so-called living manifestation of destiny, and this time he wants to fight back against AI and algorithms (some might even suggest he’s up against streaming algorithms, thus taking that saving cinema allegory even farther). That’s right, it’s the second Tom Cruise film in a row to be about a man fighting back against technological advancements, and, once again, it doesn’t disappoint. This movie is a lot of fun. 

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The Fourth Season of Succession (2023) Reinvented the Show by Living Up to its Promise | REVIEW

Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, and Kieran Culkin in HBO’s Succession — PHOTO: HBO.

It has been more than a month since Jesse Armstrong’s Succession, a highly addictive Shakespearian family comedy-drama, came to an end. Though I watched it week-by-week as it aired and even though I could’ve reviewed it right after the season finale was released, it never felt right to me to talk about this season of the show without actually diving in and talking about how the details of the season, how the ending of the show, and how its showstopping third episode all made this season what it actually ended up being. That meant that I had to give it some room to breathe so as to not spoil the conclusion to what I think is honestly one of the best shows of its era. One might have feared that, as the show moved into its final season, perhaps they didn’t know how to end it, that they didn’t how to do something new with it, or that what had once been so compelling and energetic about it would dim as the curtain call had been announced. Not so. In fact, I think Armstrong’s series wisely went out on a high (and presumably on its own terms) with a final season that understood that it was time to keep the promise inherent in the show’s title. It was an inevitable move, but it was also a move that ended up being risky exactly because of how early in the season it happened. Succession‘s fourth and final season is an example of a showrunner and a writer’s room understanding fully the ins and outs of a show so as to deliver a tragic but inevitable conclusion that will stick with its viewers for quite some time.

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Insidious: The Red Door (2023) | REVIEW

Patrick Wilson in Screen Gems’ INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR.

Directed by Patrick Wilson — Screenplay by Scott Teems — Story by Leigh Whannell and Scott Teems.

Insidious is just one of several horror film franchises kickstarted by modern horror icons James Wan and Leigh Whannell. Eventually, both Wan and Whannell have had to pass the director’s chair off to someone else whose job it is to not just continue the style of previous entries in these series but also someone careful and considerate enough to shepherd the values of the franchise. With 2018’s Insidious: The Last Key, the fourth film in the franchise, Wan and Whannell (who has a screenwriting credit on the film) passed the director’s chair to Adam Robitel, whose Insidious film was the second prequel film in the series, as well as the second prequel film in a row to abandon the Lambert family haunting in favor of focusing on the paranormal investigators and the psychic introduced in the first two films. But eventually, the Lambert family haunting narrative that Wan and Whannell made us so invested in with Insidious Chapters 1 and 2 (released in 2010 and 2013, respectively) had to continue. That’s where scream king and star of the original two films, Patrick Wilson, comes in — because he wasn’t just convinced to return in a significant role for the fifth and potentially final film, he also signed on for it to be his feature directorial debut. 

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