MICKEY 17 (2025) review
written by: Bong Joon Ho
produced by: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bong Joon-ho & Dooho Choi
directed by: Bong Joon Ho
rated: R (for violent content, language throughout, sexual content and drug material)
runtime: 137 min.
U.S. release date: March 7, 2024
After making history with his 2019 black comedy thriller “Parasite” by becoming the first non-English-language film to win a Best Picture Oscar, South Korean writer/director Bong Joon Ho has returned with “Mickey 17.” It’s his third English-language film since “Snowpiercer” and “Okja,” the auteur continues with thought-provoking and humorous science fiction. He also continues to explore unfortunately timeless themes, such as a dystopian Earth, socioeconomic inequality, capitalism, and the dangers of authoritarianism, in a wholly absorbing manner. While Bong adapts Edward Ashton’s 2002 novel Mickey 7, the film easily sits aside his filmography with the same signature style and penchant for biting satire. “Mickey 17” finds Bong working on a grander level, yet fully grasping a compelling and absurd narrative in the best ways. Read more…
Oscar-Nominated Documentary Shorts (2025) review
There are some similarities to this year’s five Oscar-Nominated Documentary Shorts nominees, but oddly, only one tells a story outside of the States. Two revolve around music, one a young girl and the other a seasoned woman, both of whom are playing a musical instrument in a large group setting. There are two that revolve around a situation that is sadly all too familiar in America, and they involve a shooting; one occurred in a high school and another on a city street in broad daylight. The other nominee involves a traumatic incident that tragically changed the lives of two individuals in Texas, resulting in one of them being sentenced to death and the other being left without a father. Two nominees are hopeful and inspiring, while the others are complicated and infuriating. As a whole, the five nominees in this category remind us that people are always more than what they appear to be, and everyone has a story to tell. Read more…
Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts (2025) review
Typically, this is the category that can offer the most variety. Animated Shorts are often have a more indie-minded approach, using different mediums and taking bold steps to tell unique stories outside the length of a feature. For a change, there are no animated shorts from the States, which is welcome when considering the Academy should take recognize more international artists. That could also explain why two of the nominees, both stop-motion, include nonchalant full frontal male nudity. Read more…
Oscar-Nominated Live-Action Shorts (2025) review
Of this year’s five nominees for Best Live-Action Shorts, only one of them looks like it belongs in a science fiction anthology. The other four all touch on real-world subjects: the preservation of endangered animals, child welfare amid an oppressive labor environment, a sudden passenger train halted with ethnic cleansing in mind, and the horrors of the complex immigration process in the U.S. It’s a better crop of live-action shorts than last year’s nominees. Read more…
CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD (2025) review
written by: Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson, Julius Onah & Peter Glanz
produced by: Kevin Feige and Nate Moore
directed by: Julius Onah
rated:
runtime: 118 min.
U.S. release date: February 14, 2025
We’re at the point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where you may feel out of sorts if you’re not caught up with each movie or television series on Disney+. That’s understandable. “Captain America: Brave New World” is the 35th installment in the MCU and the penultimate entry in what’s considered Phase Five (which started two years ago with the lackluster “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”). It’s the first sequel after the Captain America trilogy (arguably the best in the franchise), which saw Chris Evans playing Steve Rogers, to feature a different character wielding the iconic shield and it’s also the first Marvel movie helmed by Julius Onah (“Luce” and “The Cloverfield Paradox”). It’s bound to feel different, especially with five screenwriters involved in rewrites, a retitle, and reshoots. Read more…
LOVE HURTS (2025) review
written by: Matthew Murray, Josh Stoddard and Luke Passmore
produced by: Kelly McCormick, David Leitch, and Guy Danella
directed by: Jonathan Eusebio
rated: R (for strong/bloody violence and language throughout)
runtime: 83 min.
U.S. release date: February 7, 2025
After Key Huy Quan won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in 2022’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” it was easy to want more success to come his way. He seems like a genuinely grateful and humble guy, and his comeback story after such a long gap from his outstanding work in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies” was wonderful to watch. So, naturally, seeing Quan headline his first feature film would be cool and something to look forward to. It would appear “Love Hurts,” an action comedy taking place around Valentine’s Day, is just that opportunity for Quan, and it’s also the directorial debut for Jonathan Eusebio, who worked as a stunt performer in the “John Wick” series and in last summer’s “The Fall Guy.” Quan is definitely the movie’s best part, once again showing his action skills with great enthusiasm and comic timing, but sadly, there isn’t much of a story here. Read more…
NO OTHER LAND (2024) review
written by: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor
produced by: Fabien Greenberg and Bård Kjøge Rønning
directed by: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor
rated: not rated
runtime: 95 min.
U.S. release date: January 31, 2025
Unless you’re a history major or well-versed in the Middle East, it’s confounding to determine where one starts understanding the division between the two cultures. “No Other Land” is the most crucial recent documentary that comes to mind and provides a ground-level understanding of the never-ending conflict between Israel and Palestine. It’s the first documentary about the occupation of Palestine since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023 and also the first to shed light on the systemic policy of forced expulsion through home demolitions. While it is a harrowing and frustrating viewing experience, seeing such determination amid relentless oppression is enlightening and humbling. Read more…
DOG MAN (2025) review
written by: Peter Hastings
produced by: Karen Foster
directed by: Peter Hastings
rated: PG (for some action and rude humor)
runtime: 89 min.
U.S. release date: January 31, 2025
“Dog Man” isn’t just another animated feature seemingly released monthly in theaters. This is a fun movie that anyone who likes mischievous silliness and vibrant imagination will find easily enjoyable. The titular, “Part Dog. Part Man. All Hero, ” as the movie’s tagline reads, is a spin-off from writer/artist Dav Pilkey’s successful Captain Underpants series of children’s books. After that character’s big-screen debut in 2017, it’s natural to see another Pilkey creation, Dog Man, a beloved character with thirteen graphic novels by the creator, follow with its own adaptation. Writer/director Peter Hastings (whose last feature was 2002’s “Country Bears”) knows what makes the character work on the page and does an excellent job at carrying all that over into a playful and genuinely funny movie. Read more…
FLIGHT RISK (2025) review
written by: Jared Rosenberg
produced by: John Davis, John Fox, Bruce Davey & Mel Gibson
directed by: Mel Gibson
rated: R (for violence and language)
runtime: 91 min.
U.S. release date: January 24, 2025
The tagline for the thriller “Flight Risk” reads, “Y’all Need a Pilot?” and after watching this, the answer to that question is, without a doubt, “Nope.” This is probably the most January of January releases in some time, and it’s also unintentionally the weirdest and funniest movie of the year so far. But, the confounding thing is figuring out what actor Mark Wahlberg and director Mel Gibson are doing here. That’s because “Flight Risk” consists of probably the biggest acting we’ve seen from Wahlberg, and this is definitely a far cry from the epic moviemaking Gibson is known for. They get credit for doing something different here, but that doesn’t mean it works. Read more…
Top Ten Films of 2024
Are these the best films released in 2024? Maybe not to you and maybe not to many others. That’s the beauty and challenge of making your own arbitrary list. We do it out of tradition, for reference, and as a way to close out the year in film. However, it’s never a hard “close out,” and no doubt there are some films from last year that we’ll be catching up with at some point. But we must call it at some point, and now here we are… Read more…
