I Still Believe in Heroes

The great horror films are the ones that have something important to say. Yes, scares matter, but they need to amount to something. For a while, it seemed like horror films had nothing of importance to say. Scares seemed to be the ultimate goal and story was put in the backburner, and that led to a long stream of lackluster horror films. In recent years, however, we have seen genre re-defining films such as  The Conjuring , It Follows , A Quiet Place and  Get Out  restore some of the prestige that horror cinema once had.  Hereditary  is the latest film to accomplish this, and it is perhaps the most effective in doing so. Hereditary  is all about family. It’s about a family whose evil history comes back to haunt them and little by little begins to tear them apart. The film stars Toni Collette as Annie Graham, who at the beginning of the film finds herself speaking at her estranged mother’s funeral. Due to their strained relationship, Annie finds it h...

            Directing duo, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, return for the first time since their debut feature film, Vacation , released nearly three years ago. While Vacation was received very poorly by fans and critics, that should not deter audiences from seeing their new film, Game Night . After a not-so-great marketing campaign, I think most people left this movie for dead. However, there are times when a poorly marketed film turns to be really good and this was one of those cases.             Game Night follows ultra-competitive married couple Max (Jason Bateman) and Annie (Rachel McAdams), along with the friends that they regularly meet with for game nights. The relationship between Max and Annie is briefly but effectively introduced at the start of the film and you buy into their relationship right away. A short montage shows them go from new couple to newlyweds and eventua...

            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 ...

            When Phantom Thread   ended, the very first thing that came out of my mouth was, “Wow.” I just wasn’t sure what else to say after that. I knew I absolutely loved the film, but I couldn’t think of the right words to express how I felt about it. I don't typically sit through the credits of a film unless I know there's a scene attached after them, but with Phantom Thread   I just sat there after the fact trying to take it all in. As I walked out of the theater, I found myself unable to stop smiling like an idiot because I had just witnessed a love story unlike anything I had ever seen before. “Wow” ended up being the perfect way to sum up my thoughts on the film.             Paul Thomas Anderson's  Phantom Thread  has been one of 2017’s most secretive films. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Reynolds Woodcock in what he has announced will be his final role before retir...

"Oh, what's the use? Walter, you wouldn't know what it means to want to be respectable and live a halfway normal life." Hildy Johnson - His Girl Friday           When His Girl Friday  came out, way back in 1940, society was in a place where women were still not fully integrated into the work force. For the most part, women worked in clerical or sales work and they were often faced with hostility from many of the men that worked with them. Women working in journalism was a rare thing, and that is where this film takes place.           There are many things that make this a great film, but one of the things that I admire the most about it is how ahead of its time it was. It wasn't just the fact of placing Hildy (Rosalind Russell) in a male-dominated work environment, it was the fact that Hildy was a character who was respected and admired by her male peers. There are multiple comments throughout the film from the male repor...

Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Juno Temple and Jim Belushi star in Woody Allen's new drama,   Wonder Wheel . The film takes place in 1950s Coney Island and centers around Ginny (Winslet), a waitress that is unhappily married to Humpty, a carousel operator (Belushi). When Ginny falls for a young lifeguard (Timberlake), she begins to find happiness again. When Humpty's estranged daughter shows up and also vies for Mickey's attention, however, Ginny's life begins to unravel. At this moment, I'd like to point out that I've never seen a Woody Allen movie that I actually liked. Movies like   Annie Hall ,   Sleepers  and   Play It Again, Sam  are, in my opinion, absolutely dreadful. Needless to say that going into   Wonder Wheel,  my expectations were about as low as they possibly could have been. For the most part, I was correct in expecting a dull film, but that's not to say that there weren't any redeemable qualities in it. The best part abo...