GLADIATOR II (2024) review
written by: David Scarpa
produced by: Ridley Scott, Michael Pruss, Douglas Wick, Lucy Fisher & David Franzoni
directed by: Ridley Scott
rated: R (for strong bloody violence)
runtime: 148 min.
release date: November 22, 2024
24 years ago, we lived in a world where “Gladiator” beat out “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” for Best Picture at the Oscars. It had been quite a while since any Hollywood studio brought a Roman Empire epic to the big screen, and director Ridley Scott aimed to revitalize the genre. It became a huge hit and earned five Oscars, including a Best Actor award for star Russell Crowe. Indeed, audiences were entertained! A month after its release, there were talks of either a prequel or sequel, and rumors continued over the years until Paramount took over the rights from Dreamworks around 2018, and now we have “Gladiator II”. Read more…
ANORA (2024) review
written by: Sean Baker
produced by: Alex Coco, Samantha Quan and Sean Baker
directed by: Sean Baker
rated: R (for strong sexual content throughout, graphic nudity, pervasive language, and drug use)
runtime: 139 min.
U.S. release date: October 18, 2024
Each film in Sean Baker’s potent and absorbing filmography defies a fair summarization. Sure, many of his films follow sex workers, but their goal is to destigmatize and illuminate them in a way in which we see their humanity. Maybe, just maybe, someone who works as a stripper or as an escort, or acts in porn, isn’t all that different from you and me. Indeed, Baker has developed an unexpectedly astute penchant for portraying the complexities of people we would normally, and sometimes easily dismiss, summing them up upon our first introduction. For his eighth narrative feature, the American writer/director offers the rom-com dramedy “Anora,” which could be described as “Pretty Woman” and “Uncut Gems” if you ground them down and snorted them up and let the next 2 hours and 19 minutes play while working off a bender. However, like all his films, there’s always much more going on. Read more…
A REAL PAIN (2024) review
written by: Jesse Eisenberg
produced by: Ewa Puszczyńska, Jennifer Semler, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone
Ali Herting & Dave McCary
directed by: Jesse Eisenberg
rated: R (for language throughout and some drug use)
runtime: 90 min.
U.S. release date: November 1, 2024
“A Real Pain” is the second film written and directed by actor Jesse Eisenberg after his directorial debut at Sundance in 2022 with “When You Finish Saving the World” backed by A24. That film revolved around a contentious relationship between a mother and her teen son, and for his latest, Eisenberg focuses once again on family. This time, Eisenberg (working with Searchlight Pictures) casts himself as one of a pair of cousins who reconnect on a tour of modern-day Poland in honor of their recently deceased grandmother, who lived there before the Holocaust. With the pair being opposites, there are funny and awkward moments in an overall reflective journey that comes across as quite authentic, vulnerable, and personal. Read more…
HERETIC (2024) review
written by: Scott Beck & Bryan Woods
produced by: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, Julia Glausi, Stacey Sher, Jeanette Volturno
directed by: Scott Beck & Bryan Woods
rated: R (for some bloody violence)
runtime: 111 min.
U.S. release date: November 8, 2024
“So, you have to go doon… in order to go oot!”
One of my favorite things about one of my favorite films of the new millennium, 2012’s “Cloud Atlas,” was the casting of Hugh Grant in several villainous roles. Sure, Grant had played his fair share of cads over the years, but he’d never exuded pure evil in this way, and it looked like a new dawn was breaking in his career. Grant’s villain era has been a thing of pure delight, from those “Cloud Atlas” baddies to “Paddington 2″s deliciously vain antagonist and several prestige television villains, Grant seems to be having a great deal of fun on screen for the first time in a long time. Read more…
JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX (2024) review
written by: Scott Silver and Todd Phillips
produced by: Todd Phillips, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, and Joseph Garner
directed by: Todd Phillips
rated: R (for some strong violence, language throughout, some sexuality, and brief full nudity)
runtime: 138 min.
U.S. release date: October 4, 2024 & October 29, 2024 (Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Google Play & Fandango At Home)
I watched “Joker: Folie à Deux” on a Tuesday afternoon after the movie’s opening weekend and had the theater all to myself. Granted, that’s not the first time I’ve experienced a solo viewing in a multiplex, but considering this is the sequel to 2019’s “Joker” (also released in October), which became the first R-rated movie to make over a billion dollars and would go on to win two Oscars of its eleven nominations, it was sort of ironic. Read more…
SMILE 2 (2024)
written by: Parker Finn
produced by: Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, Isaac Klausner, Parker Finn & Robert Salerno
directed by: Parker Finn
rated: R (for strong bloody violent content, grisly images, language throughout and drug use)
runtime: 127 min.
U.S. release date: October 18, 2024
“Smile 2” is one of those sequels in which the viewer would benefit from seeing the first movie. That is if you’re into intense frights. One could still find entertainment from this first follow-up to 2022’s “Smile,” a horror flick from writer/director Parker Finn which went on to become the third highest-grossing film that year (impressive, considering it was originally going to be relegated to streaming land), but this is an instance in which having familiarity will offer up some satisfying dividends. Finn returns with the same crew to continue this terrifying tale, once again revolving around a young woman trying to make sense of her increasing madness while gradually expanding his world-building. Read more…
THE APPRENTICE (2024) review
written by: Gabriel Sherman
produced by: Ali Abbasi, Daniel Bekerman, Julianne Forde, Jacob Jarek, Louis Tisné, Ruth Treacy
directed by: Ali Abbasi
rated: R (for sexual content, some graphic nudity, language, sexual assault, and drug use)
runtime: 122 min.
U.S. release date: October 11, 2024
“Listen, here, I don’t need your money. You pay me back with your friendship, quid pro quo, you be a friend to me, I be a friend to you, okay? That’s the pact.”
There are many movies that come out each year where I can’t help but wonder who exactly the target audience is for that particular film. It’s often things like “Dark Shadows” or “Welcome to Marwen,” where no substantial cross-section of the population is guaranteed to enjoy the movie. Director Ali Abbasi’s new film “The Apprentice” seems to suffer from this same problem, as any film covering any portion of the life of Donald Trump is sure to have folks lining up on both sides. Read more…
MEGALOPOLIS (2024) review
written by: Francis Ford Coppola
produced by: Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Roos, Barry Hirsch, and Michael Bederman
directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
rated: R (for sexual content, nudity, drug use, language and some violence)
runtime: 138 min.
U.S. release date: September 27, 2024
“What do you think about my boner?”
The benefit of the doubt is a powerful thing for an audience to give over to a filmmaker, but if one filmmaker has earned such status, it’s Francis Ford Coppola. The (literal) godfather of New Hollywood’s film brats of the 1970s, Coppola mentored and paved the way for some of the biggest filmmakers of the last quarter of the 20th century. When he works on an epic canvas—which he really hasn’t done since 1992’s “Dracula”—attention must be paid amongst the cine-literate. Read more…
MONSTER SUMMER (2024) review
written by: Cornelius Uliano and Bryan Schulz
produced by: Mark Fasano, James Henrie, John Blanford & Dan McDonough
directed by: David Henrie
rated: PG-13 (for some violence and terror)
runtime: 97 min.
U.S. release date: October 4, 2024
There aren’t that many Halloween season releases suitable for adolescents, so “Monster Summer” is coming out at just the right time. The movie conjures that Amblin feeling of yesteryear, offering a coming-of-age adventure from director David Henrie (“This is the Year”) set in a time when bikes were the mode of transportation for juveniles. The story from screenwriters Cornelius Uliano and Bryan Schulz weaves an air of mystery and spookiness throughout while attempting a “Stranger Things” vibe despite being set a decade later than that hit show. Read more…
HAUNTED HEART (2024) review
written by: Rylend Grant and Fernando Trueba
produced by: Fenia Cossovitsa, Dago García, Cristina Huete, and Fernando Trueba
directed by: Fernando Trueba
rated: not rated
runtime: 128 min.
U.S. release date: September 27, 2024 (theater/VOD)
The trailer for “Haunted Heart” makes the film out to be the kind of neo-noir thriller released in the early 90s. Its Greek island setting also makes the film one of those “destination projects” where all involved decided it would be an excellent excuse to visit the idyllic location. There’s nothing wrong with that approach. It’s a great idea. However, like any film, its success comes down to the screenplay. The story here, directed by Fernando Trueba (winner of the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar back in 1992 for his comedy “Belle Époque”), who co-wrote with Rylend Grant, has an intriguing and inviting set-up that unfortunately falters into formulaic patterns with odd behavior patterns, and dialogue that mostly seems unnatural and unintentionally silly. Read more…
