Cinefiles: Movie Reviews

RT - 🍅 88% My Score - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ So, at this point, I've pretty much come to terms with the fact that Yorgos Lanthimos, however brilliant he is, really pushes the boundaries of normal: The Lobster, Poor Things, just to name a few. It's safe to say that before I started watching Bugonia , I had no clue what this movie was going to be about, but I knew that I was in for a wild ride. Sure enough, my boy Yorgos did not disappoint! Nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Emma Stone), and Best Adapted Screenplay, Bugonia boasts a stellar cast with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons leading the way. ***SPOILERS AHEAD*** Based on the South Korean short film Save the Green Planet!  (2003), the story follows Teddy Gatz (Plemons) and his autistic cousin Don (played by Aidan Delbis), who believes that Big Pharma CEO Michelle Fuller (Stone) is an extraterrestrial from an alien race known as Andromedans whose sole purpose is to take over planet earth and destroy it. We ...

  RT - 🍅 95% My Score - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Who knew that a Netflix movie about logging would move me? I'll be honest: I had very low expectations for this movie. Sure, I knew that the cinematography was going to be brilliant (and it was). But, I expected this to be nothing more than a vehicle for beautiful scenery of the American Northwest.  What I watched instead was a beautiful tale of love, loss, and a man's journey through pain and torture as he tries to find his way out of the dark wilderness of grief. Nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Original Song, and Best Adapted Screenplay , the film is a timeless piece of Americana that will leave you in awe of the scope of the scenery, and in the emotional depth of the tragically beautiful performances by the entire cast. The film's main protagonist, Robert Grainier, is marvelously portrayed by Joel Edgerton. Edgerton gives life to a role that doesn't have much to go on. From the outside, h...

The nominees have been officially announced for the upcoming 2026 Academy Awards. The ceremony took place at 8:30am, and the nominees were announced by Danielle Brooks and Lewis Pullman. There were a total of 201 films that were up for nomination this year, and I'm sure that the blogs and internet channels will be buzzing about the snubs and frontrunners. They even added a brand new category to the Oscar nominations: Best Casting. The Academy Awards will air on Sunday, March 15th, starting at 7:00pm with Conan O'Brien returning as host after a successful hosting job last year. See the full list of nominees below: BEST PICTURE F1 Bugonia Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another The Secret Agent Sentimental Value Sinners Train Dreams BEST DIRECTOR Chloe Zhao - Hamnet Josh Safdie - Marty Supreme Paul Thomas Anderson - One Battle After Another Joachim Trier - Sentimental Value Ryan Coogler - Sinners BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE Timothee Chalamet - Marty Supreme Le...

Every year, I watch the Oscars. For me, along with the Super Bowl and the Tony Awards, the Oscars are a must-watch event. I don't know why. On the inside, the value of a movie isn't about how many nominations it gets during the awards season. It's about how it makes you feel. That is art is about.  Also, I know that the Oscars are not about what movie is actually the better movie. It's about how well the movie campaigns for itself. Production companies spend millions of dollars to ensure that their film gets on "the shortlist".  Still, every year I find myself watching and waiting in anticipation to see which movie gets the awards, and every year I find myself getting worked up about the films that won versus the ones that didn't. With the exception of a few, I have always been disappointed in what the Academy chooses as their winner, ESPECIALLY when it comes to the category of Best Picture. And with that, here is a list of the Best Picture winners from th...

RT - 🍅 93% METASCORE - 80 MY SCORE - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I'll just start by saying this: it is extremely rare to see a movie be this good when it is the fourth film in the franchise. Usually, by this point, you would think that they have explored all they can explore in this world. But, they proved us all wrong. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is the 4th installment in the 28 Days Later film franchise, and honestly, might be it's best. Ralph Fiennes puts up what I believe to be an Oscar-worthy performance. ***SPOILERS AHEAD*** This film picks up where the first 28 Years Later left off. We find our hero, Spike (Alfie Williams), being initiated into the Fingers gang, led by the enigmatic and self-proclaimed son of Sir Nick, Jimmy Crystal (Jack 'Connell). Once Spike wins the fight to the death against one of the other Jimmies by stabbing him in the leg, he becomes the next member in the seven person cult. On the other side of the island, we see the infected Alpha (Chi Lewis-Parry) eating hi...

   - RT - 🍅 81% METASCORE - 64 MY SCORE - ⭐⭐⭐ The boys from Beantown strike again! This time as Miami-Dade PD Tactical Narcotics officers in the new Netflix crime thriller, The Rip. ***SPOILERS AHEAD*** The story picks up after the mysterious murder of Miami-Dade TNT (Tactical Narcotics Team) Captain Jackie Valez (Lina Esco) by two mysterious men wearing ski masks. Dana Dumars (Damon), now lieutenant of the despondent team, along with longtime friend Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne (Affleck), are being questioned along with the rest of the team by the FBI, who strongly believe that Jackie was a dirty cop. If news of her being dirty gets out, this might spell the end of the TNT for good with the new budget cuts to the department. After hours of questioning, Dana gets a tip on his phone about a possible drophouse location suspected to have lots of cash. He rallies his team to go and investigate, where they discover that there is quite a lot more money than they had anticipated. N...

 When I was a kid, back in 2002, New Line Cinema came out with a film called S1m0ne , starring Al Pacino as a movie producer whose lead actress walks out on him in the middle of filming his next project. To save the film, he digitally creates an actress to replace her named Simone (short for "Simulation One"), and she becomes an overnight sensation. The film explores the moral ethics of doing such a thing, and what kind of repercussions result in playing God in the digital world. When I first started hearing about Tilly Norwood, this movie was the first thing that popped up in my memory. I'm sure for some people, they immediately jumped to Black Mirror  to draw inspiration for their outrage. Whichever movie you drew inspiration from, the fact is the future is here.  For those that don't know what I am talking about, allow me to fill you in. Last year, Particle6 Group , a tech-forward production company from Europe founded in 2015 by Dutch actress and producer Eline Va...

RT  - 🍅  91% METASCORE  - 73 MY SCORE - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Since it's release on November 26th, 2025,   Disney's Zootopia 2 has become the studio's highest-grossing animated film of all-time, surpassing 2019's Frozen 2 . I think it's safe to say that this might be one of the most successful Disney sequels of all-time. The story picks up right where the first one left off. Officer Judy Hopps (voiced by Once Upon A Time star Ginnifer Goodwin) is now partners with the quick-witted Nick Wilde (voiced by Jason Bateman of Ozark and Arrested Development fame). This time, they are out to prove to Chief Bogo, their colleagues at the ZPD (Zootopia Police Department), and the rest of the world that they are not just a fluke team. They have what it takes to be partners on the squad. Their partnership is put to the test when a new visitor to Zootopia has everyone on edge: a python by the name of Gary De'Snake (voiced by Academy Award winner Key Huy Quan). With some recurring favorites ...

Shockwaves have been sent around the film world after Indy, an 8-year-old Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever owned by filmmaker Ben Leonberg, brings home the gold for Best Performance in a Horror or Thriller at the 9th Annual Aftra Film Awards. Indy, the star of GOOD BOY, receiving their Astra Award from home with owner  Ben Leonberg Indy starred in the film Good Boy , a 2025 elevated horror thriller told entirely from the dog's perspective. The performance was noted for not needing to use any CGI or AI assisted software for the dog. The dog's owners, Ben Leonberg and Kari Fischer who also made the film, trained the dog themselves, using a series of dog treats and tricks to get the dog to perform on cue. As adorable and uplifting as this story is (who doesn't love that face?), it has not come without a little controversy. Many hollywood insiders and film industry people have come out against the decision to award the dog, saying that it is disrespectful and degrading to all...

It is unfair to say that Elevated Horror  is a new term, or even a new idea, because elevated horror films have been around for well over 50 years now. I would rather call it more of a trending term in the horror movie zeitgeist. At least for me, I wasn't aware of the term until this past year. However, it perfectly describes the trend that is happening in the horror movie genre today. For those that are unfamiliar with the term, "elevated horror" is a horror movie subgenre that is categorized by the use of complex themes, artistic style, emotional depth, and a heavier focus on the craftsmanship of making the film instead of relying on graphic content: blood, gore, sex, etc.  Now, most horror movie fans would say that any good horror movie that's worth its weight in blood already does that. There is a lot of debate as to which horror movies would be considered a part of this category. For example: in the film In A Violent Nature (2024), the film uses a unique style of...

***SPOILERS AHEAD*** Who knew that a movie about Ping Pong would make for one of the most exciting movies of 2025?  In one of his first solo ventures following the "amicable" departure from his brother Benny, Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme is a fast-paced, roller coaster of emotions that is sure to delight critics and audiences alike. Starring Timothee Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Fran Drescher, "Mr. Wonderful" Kevin O'Leary (from Shark Tank fame), and Tyler the Creator, this film will make you laugh, cry, cringe, and cheer. It's hard to define what genre this film falls under, which is probably the point. Similar to how it is unfair to call Rocky a simple sports film, this film is far more than just a movie about table tennis.  Set in 1952 New York City, Marty Supreme tells the story of young shoe salesman Marty Mauser, who dreams of proving himself to be the greatest Table Tennis player in the world, which would bring more attention to th...