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...

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...