1st Reviews

  Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc follows Denji as his life briefly shifts away from nonstop Devil-hunting when he meets Reze, a kind and intriguing girl who seems to genuinely understand him. Their growing connection gives Denji a glimpse of the normal, peaceful life he has always wanted, but the film slowly reveals a darker tension beneath their calm moments together.  Denji is a simple man but also a dumb teen. when a woman shows him attention, he jumps at the change to start any sort of relationship. Although he has tried to get with every female in his path up to this point, this is the most intimate and emotional connection he makes which makes it drastically different that any interaction that came before.  The film also sets up a brand new dynamic in the team of Denji and Beam, the Shark Fiend. Power is great but it is a refreshing change from her crazy antics to get more of a buddy cop relationship for this adventure.  Visually, the movie contrasts soft, ...

  In 2023, Rick Riordan’s classic young adult series   Percy Jackson & the Olympians  was adapted into a television series. Season one of the popular series was incredibly well done and set the tone for how the seasons would develop the novels. Each book would fill an eight-episode season, and that is enough time to retell each story.   Percy Jackson  has always been popular because of Greek mythology and Riordan’s own golden trio of characters: Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell), Annabeth Chase (Leah Sava Jeffries) and Grover Underwood (Aryan Simhadri).  Season two of  Percy Jackson & the Olympians  adapts the second novel in the series,  The Sea of Monsters.  Over the school year, Percy has written to his friends, Grover and Annabeth, and even made a new friend at home named Tyson. Once he gets to Camp Half Blood, he discovers that they’re in trouble and the magical borders - which protect Half Blood Hill- have been poisoned by a m...

When we are born, we are clueless about the journey ahead. What we seek as humans, even from a young age, is a purpose. We are told to pursue a path we are passionate about, but no one warns us how challenging it may be. Whether it’s struggling through medical school or struggling to write words on a page, everyone has their own Everest to overcome, not only to prove to others who may doubt them, but to prove to oneself that it is possible to achieve that goal. We believe we have to be great at any given dream or else we’re failures. But what we don’t realize is that life comes with many failures; it’s more important how we overcome them to achieve new goals. In a year notable directors have demonstrated why they’re so highly regarded (Paul Thomas Anderson, Chloe Zhao and Ryan Coogler), Josh Safdie debuts his solo directorial feature Marty Supreme. This year, his brother, Benny Safdie, went solo with the biopic, The Smashing Machine, starring Dwayne Johnson. The Safdies...

Zootopia 2 expands on its titular setting in ways that contrary to many big sequel, feel natural to the world of its story and quite visually intriguing. Though it can’t recapture the magic of Zootopia (to be fair, almost no animated movie can), this sequel is engaging, charming, and incredibly funny, despite a rushed start. Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman contribute to the great, if rocky, dynamic duo that is Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, now partners on the Zootopia police force and looking to do some good together. Though at first it feels like Nick has unlearned much of what he learned in the first film, we soon come to understand his motivations and where their friendship goes is very heartfelt and excellently written. Fortune Feimster, Ke Huy Quan, and Andy Samberg stand out the most as new characters in the mix, particularly Feimster as a lovable new ally of the duo. The film may miss the thematic weight of the first film, but still has an interesting, if unsubtle, mess...

Good Fortune is a comedy fantasy film directed and written by Aziz Ansari, starring Keanu Reeves, Aziz Ansari, and Seth Rogen. The story follows Gabriel (Reeves), a low-ranking guardian angel who swaps the lives of Arj (Ansari), a struggling gig worker, and Jeff (Rogen), a wealthy investor. The switch forces both men to experience each other’s very different realities. Still from Good Fortune Think of Good Fortune as a “Freaky Friday” story without a body swap, just a swap of jobs and lifestyles. The film aims to show that money does not bring happiness, but it often suggests the opposite. This plays out in two major ways. First, when Gabriel switches Arj’s life with Jeff’s to prove a point, Arj enjoys the wealth and comfort so much that he refuses to switch back, which is the only reason the plot continues. Second, after Gabriel fails to convince Arj, he is temporarily demoted to human status and takes on a regular job, where he immediately complains about h...

Train Dreams is a profoundly affecting portrait of a life. Set during the final days of the American frontier, its story may be intimate but its thematic impact is sprawling — transcendent even. This is a film that will resonate deeply in my heart and mind for years to come. It’s a quiet film — almost deceptively simple. Before you know it, though, you’re being carried through the extraordinary beauty of a very ordinary life — the love, the hardships, the little triumphs, the grief, and all those seemingly mundane moments that end up becoming the memories we hold on to longest. The story is told with an unhurried pace, and you have to just let it all kind of wash over you to experience it fully. It truly feels as if you’re watching an entire life unfold before your eyes. Its themes are ones we can all connect with, and that’s part of what makes it one of the most moving films of the year. Still from Train Dreams One of the most underrated talents of thi...