1st Reviews

After leaving us dangling on a massive cliffhanger for nearly three years, AppleTV’s hit mystery-box series is back for its sophomore outing. This season is bigger, more ambitious and doubles down on the strangeness factor. While it does answer a ton of burning questions, it also suffers slightly from the carrot and stick formula these types of shows often rely too heavily on.  A huge part of Severance’s appeal are the many mysteries it allows us to unravel as the show progresses. This season continues to unspool existing threads, while dropping plenty of new ones to expand the world. What these new episodes excel at is further exploring the line between the characters’ innies and outies, and the ethical dilemmas that stem from two separate beings sharing one body. Viewers with keen eyes will find plenty of small clues to fuel their theories, but there are some big revelations made as well. This season isn’t as concise with its storytelling, delivering a little more padding leading...

The first Disney Princess to grace the screen in 1937 was Snow White, and it seems they enjoy remaking her story. This iteration of the classic fairytale is possibly the most accurate. Snow White (2025) looks like a carbon copy of the animated feature with more songs added and a fearless modern characterization of the title character.   For the first time in a while, a Disney live-action looked colourful and had some beautifully executed musical numbers. Although Snow White (2025) was not marketed heavily as a musical most of the numbers involving the dwarves and Snow White (Rachel Zegler) are wholesome and nostalgic.   Co-writers Erin Cressida Wilson and Jacob Grimm went back to the roots of Disney princess magic by giving our princess a much-needed backstory with her parents ruling the Kingdom. We see the love between them and feel her loss when she is taken as a prisoner by the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot) after her father doesn’t return.   Rachel Zegler is a bonafide star a...

  Steven Soderbergh’s cleverest film in years,  Black Bag  boasts an entertaining cast, an exciting aesthetic, and a story that’s inviting though occasionally overwhelmingly complicated. Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett have great chemistry together as a couple with a complex love. Fassbender’s character in particular has an interesting manner to him, and every decision reveals more about the lengths he’s willing to go to. Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, and Rege-Jean Page all round out a great ensemble cast, each of whom has unique and intriguing characteristics and flaws. Soderbergh has tested the limits of filmmaking with a number of his films recently. Though he takes a more traditional approach here, the writing and aesthetic still feel large and thoughtful, with the pace flying by and the turns the story takes becoming more and more exciting. With perfectly cast characters and a smart story,  Black Bag  definitely ranks high for the director’s...

Have you ever felt frustrated with Netflix and their frequent price increases? Well, you can finally breathe a sigh of relief, because your hard earned money allowed them to spend 320 million dollars to bankroll “The Electric State”. Surely with that kind of price tag, the studio must be confident in the film’s quality, right?… right?  From Joe and Anthony Russo, who brought us some of the MCU’s very best entries, this pricey blockbuster is the most expensive streaming release of all time, and the 13th most expensive movie of all time - period. Unfortunately, this ludicrous budget only draws more attention to a bigger problem with studio spending, and the current state of Hollywood’s broken business model. The film certainly looks flashy and expensive, but as a straight-to-streaming release, you can’t tell me Netflix was hoping to see a worthwhile return on this investment via subscribers - let alone turn a profit.  But enough about irresponsible studio spending. What about th...

  Playing like a greatest hits for Bong Joon Ho, Mickey 17 pulls elements from several of the Oscar winning director’s most acclaimed projects. What it’s missing, however, is the focused narrative and thematic purpose Ho’s past films have all thrived on.  That’s not to say this movie doesn’t still provide a fun, strange and occasionally thought provoking experience. It’s just that there are a few too many ideas rattling around that get in each other’s way. The profound concept of one soul and consciousness shared simultaneously between two beings is fascinating, but it’s never explored further than a few lines of dialogue. This could have given the film the emotional weight it needed amongst the zaniness of the science fiction and political elements, but it couldn’t strike that balance. The sociopolitical commentary is not subtle, nor is it trying to be, but it’s a little too on the nose, straying from satire into full on parody at times. This is undoubtedly one of Robert Patt...

  Over the years, visionary filmmakers have made defining films for each decade. Bong Joon Ho is one of those directors. In 2020,   Parasite  became the film to define the decade and challenge the rich with their questionable values.   Whether you were part of the #BongHive that season or watched his other films-  Okja, Snowpiercer,  and  Memories of Murder-  he knows how to intertwine cynicism and hopefulness, crafting an impactful narrative for audiences to reflect on their lives as well.  Bong Joon Ho addresses social issues plaguing our society through his experimental vision while grounding his characters with human values, having them question those with power. In  Mickey 17,  Joon-Ho tackles the world Edward Ashton created in his novel  Mickey 7 .  Mickey 17 (Robert Pattison) is an expendable worker who goes on impossibly dangerous missions, waiting for death only to be re-imagined in a machine to continue these tas...

  Daredevil: Born Again truly shows what the MCU has been lacking in recent years. With its audience aging, Daredevil does what the MCU should have done a long time ago, embracing its darker and edgier storylines.  The tone is set minutes into the show with a truly shocking sequence that not only snowballs a series of events for the rest of the season but signifies that the show is not holding back and anything goes. These events shape Matt into a new direction this season and show us a version of him that we have not yet seen. focusing on the dynamic between Matt and Fisk as they both enter new stages of their lives and careers. The parallels between them have never been more blurred which solidifies them as the best dynamic in the MCU. Matt is trying to find his place in the world and understanding what it means to put the mask on all while trying to keep his anger in check. Fisk is also trying to find himself as he is trying to rebrand himself in the public eye.  ...