I Still Believe in Heroes

            Director James Foley returns to helm Fifty Shades Freed, the franchise’s last installment. The film begins during Anastasia (Dakota Johnson) and Christian’s (Jamie Dornan) honeymoon. Despite Christian’s possessive and jealous nature, the pair appears to be happy until their vacation is cut short as a result of a break-in at Christian’s company. Camera footage reveals the culprit to be Anastasia’s former boss, Jack Hyde (Eric Johnson) and tensions begin to rise.             As if having to worry that Hyde might be after them wasn’t enough, the newlyweds encounter a series of problems within themselves. For one, Christian’s constant hovering over Anastasia doesn’t sit well with her since it gets in the way of her job and personal life. Things become even more tense when Anastasia discovers that Christian isn’t really sure about wanting kids in the future (stuf...

Classic cinema represents the best of what film can be. Most of the films we see and love today take ideas from the classics that came before them. La La Land , one of 2016’s most beloved films, owes a debt of gratitude to films like Singin’ in the Rain , An American in Paris and West Side Story . I believe that it is completely possible to enjoy films without having knowledge of what came before them, but I also think that having that knowledge enhances your experience of them. I understand why people today might not want to seek out a 70-year-old film. Thanks to Netflix, Hulu and Amazon we have an unending stream of modern films to explore. Even beyond that, I know there are many people out there who simply don’t like black-and-white movies. Others find older movie effects laughable. There are some who don’t watch old films because they look and feel old. With every year comes newer and newer technological advances that make older films look less impressive. Yet, despite ...

                           To say that slashers were on the decline before the release of Wes Craven’s Scream would be an understatement. By that point in 1996, the slasher genre had gone completely stale and left for dead. Most of what we got were rehashes of things we had already seen. It was sequel after sequel of the main slasher franchises such as Friday the 13 th and Halloween . What was once a thoughtful look at gender and a vehicle for women be heroes (because of the Final Girl trope) had become a soulless excuse to show blood and violence on the screen. Then, Scream arrived and rewrote the whole narrative on slasher films. The genre was once again alive and thriving.               Scream follows Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, a young high school girl who is approaching the one-year anniversary of her mother’s grizzly murder. As the date app...

What is it about horror movies that draw audiences in to see them?   There is the thrill of being scared, sure, but is that really as far as it goes? I think not. You see, more than any other genre, horror films are a product of their generation and they typically speak to or highlight the societal issues that are going on around the time that a given horror film is made.   In many ways, horror films help us understand or comment on important issues such as race ( Get Out ), sexuality ( It Follows ), and mental/physical/emotional issues ( The Babadook ). Horror is a genre with many faces but for this particular article, I will touch on what I believe to be the best horror subgenres, the slasher film, and discuss why they are important.              I can understand why people may be a bit turned off by slasher films. In many ways they are a lot closer to reality than a monster or demonic horror movie. Many slasher films...

The official nominations for the 2018 Academy Awards are here. As is the case every year, there were some surprises along the way. Below are the nominations for each category along with my biggest takeaways. BEST PICTURE Call Me by Your Name Darkest Hour Dunkirk Get Out Lady Bird Phantom Thread The Post The Shape of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Biggest Takeaways: I was really rooting for Phantom Thread  but I doubted its chances to get in. It ended up doing much better than I thought it would and that makes me very happy. Get Out becomes just the third horror film ever to be nominated for Best Picture, following in the footsteps of The Exorcist (1973) and The Silence of the Lambs  (1991).  I really hoped that either Logan or Wonder Woman would maybe sneak in, but figured they wouldn't. Finally, I really wish Coco  would have been nominated for Best Picture because it honestly deserved it. BEST DIRECTOR Christopher Nolan - ...

Director Nicolai Fuglsig brings us 12 Strong ,   the unbelievable true story of the very first Special Forces team sent to Afghanistan after the terrorist attack of 9/11. Captain Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth), an untested captain, and his team must team up with an Afghan warlord in order to take down the Taliban. 12 Strong stars Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon and Michael Peña. It seems that the vast majority of war films in recent years have centered around the subject of PTSD which makes this film a nice departure into a different aspect of war. Instead of dealing with the aftermath of war,  12 Strong is very much about the beginnings of it and briefly touches on the initial emotions one goes through after killing someone for the first time. While I would have liked to see the film dive into this a little bit more deeply, I appreciate the fact that it at least tried. The film   wastes no time in sending us to the battlefield. However, the short period of ti...

On Sunday, January 7th the 2018 Golden Globes will be taking place. Below are my predictions. Please note that I will only be making predictions for the film side of things. BEST MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA Call Me by Your Name Dunkirk The Post The Shape of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Should win: Call Me by Your Name Will win: The Shape of Water While I think Call Me by Your Name has a legitimate shot at winning, it's hard to ignore the amount of love and hype behind The Shape of Water .  BEST MOTION PICTURE - MUSICAL OR COMEDY The Disaster Artist Get Out The Greatest Showman I, Tonya Lady Bird Should win: Get Out Will win: Get Out Look, there is absolutely no reason why Get Out should be nominated in this category since it is neither a comedy nor a musical, but here we are now. While I wouldn't argue with anyone who thinks Lady Bird will win, I think that Get Ou t 's social relevance will g...