Dan Trachtenberg's latest Predator entry is another solidly entertaining character piece It’s a curious yet unsurprising trend, when a franchise has burnt out, studios are willing to give the material to filmmakers with a lower budget and freer rein. The studio liberation allows viewers to instead get engrossing entries as with Planet of the Apes , when Matt Reeves delivered some of the most thought-provoking films in the franchise. The same has occurred with the Predator fil

Yorgos Lanthimos' latest is a deconstruction of conspiracy theorists Yorgos Lanthimos has developed an idiosyncratic style, in the same way that Wes Anderson or Kelly Reichardt has. You can identify a Lanthimos film without knowing it’s his, thanks to his use of absurdism, cynicism of humanity, and dark humor. He’s found a particular muse in Emma Stone, who has now starred in his last five projects, most notably earning her second Oscar for Poor Things (2023). The two have pa

Kelly Reichardt's latest demystifies the criminal caper In a time when movies are increasingly loud and boisterous, struggling to capture our ever-shortening attention spans, it’s both refreshing and startling to find quiet, paused films. Yet this has been Kelly Reichardt’s style since her debut River of Grass (1994). She’s subsequently used her meditative and unhurried approach to demystify genres and tropes in Meek’s Cutoff (2010), Certain Women (2016), and First Cow (2019)

Alberto Rodriguez's latest thriller is his best in years The film noir had its height in the mid-century, and shortly revived in the 1970s anti-system surge of independent young filmmakers, where they delivered perhaps the most defining film of the genre: Chinatown (1974). Since then, the genre has fallen off the wayside. Yet over in Spain, the Andalusian filmmaker Alberto Rodriguez has steadily kept the genre alive with a mixture of grittiness and minimalism. His newest is L

Guillemo Del Toro delivers a colorful and defining adaptation of the Mary Shelly novel As much as Netflix is getting blamed for the death of the theatrical experience, the streaming company is giving filmmakers the resources and freedom otherwise denied by studios. This is most apparent with Guillermo Del Toro, the Mexican director has always had a passion for monster movies and fairytales, and when he sought to make his version of Pinocchio (2022), he insisted on it being d

Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s follow-up to Lullaby explores faith and female agency but loses its balance in the debate The struggle with one’s spirituality is a journey that all of us undergo at some point. Most of our questions regarding higher powers and what such faith means regarding one’s own identity often occur in adolescence. Yet, as young people have become less religious over time (albeit there has been an uptick in churchgoing since the pandemic), the expectations of a y