Review: ‘Red Notice’ is an Action-Comedy that Leaves the Action at Home and Forgets What Comedy Looks Like

In the lead-up to the release of Red Notice, stars Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds promoted the film by calling attention to the  massive budget granted by Netflix—$200 million, a record for the streaming service. Most of the budget was likely reserved for the three-headed dragon that is the cast: the aforementioned Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Ryan Reynolds also team up with Gal Gadot, with Rawson Marshall Thurber as writer and director, providing a known formula that’s followed almost to a T but disregards quality at every step of the way.

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Review: ‘Love Hard’ Provides a Refreshing Twist on the Rom-Com

Romantic comedies, or rom-coms, have been following a very, very formulaic approach to plot nowadays: lonely people with unlucky dating lives meet the partners of their dreams, do quirky things together, and ultimately end up together while cheesy pop music plays in the background. Kiss, and roll credits. That’s it, right? I mean, following this approach is practically how any movie studio can succeed!

If you or a loved one have been bored, offended, or even fooled by this formula, look no further than Hernán Jiménez’s new film Love Hard, which has recently come to Netflix. It…somehow doesn’t do all of this.

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Review: ‘Belfast’ Crafts an Emotionally Powerful Story Despite Unspectacular Filmmaking

Kenneth Branagh’s newest film, Belfast, is first and foremost a deeply personal film, if not an almost entirely auto-biographical one. Set in the eponymous Irish city in the north during the tumultuous late 60s and early 70s, one might immediately imagine a darker political drama centered directly around the events of the Troubles. Films like Paul Greengrass’s Bloody Sunday or Steve McQueen’s Hunger, set during the same general time period, focus directly on tangible events within the political violence of colonialism at the time, like the Bogside Massacre and the hunger strikers at Long Kesh. This stark history provides these films with the background to craft stories with darker and more incendiary tones. On this note, Branagh’s film makes a significant departure.

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Review: ‘Dune’ is a Good Movie on its Own, But a Mediocre ‘Dune’ Movie

When David Lynch released his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune in 1984, reviewers believed it was almost impossible to follow, leading to a theory of Herbert’s iconic 1965 sci-fi novel being “unadaptable.” 40 years later, Denis Villeneuve’s attempt at “recreating” Dune is earning the exact same reactions.

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Review: ‘The Velvet Underground’ Asks For Your Attention

The team behind the documentary The Velvet Underground are certainly big fans of  the film’s namesake–at least that’s how the film comes across. Written and directed by Todd Haynes, this music documentary aims to show the influential rock group The Velvet Underground in all of their glory. To watch it feels like Todd Haynes and his crew are telling the story of how their favorite couple got together. The documentary clearly demonstrated a great sense of pride and admiration towards the band. The narrative progresses with a sense of anxiety, almost as if Haynes is afraid something might be left out and the audience might not fully understand all that is The Velvet Underground. The film’s attempt to fit in all the facts makes the story emulate the montages and split screen endeavors that the band itself explored. The elements the filmmakers felt were crucial to understanding the band, their moment in time, and their implications were looked at with wide eyes. However, the double edge of that lover’s sword is a confused vision. Watching The Velvet Underground is dizzying, an experience akin to rolling down a big grassy hill on a carefree day. The film is a phenomenal work of art but doesn’t have the space to catch its breath. 

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Review: ‘The French Dispatch’ Is a Love Letter to Writers Who Cover the Extraordinary

There is a joy in settling down to read a special newspaper or magazine article, one where you know the writer is cataloging the unordinary. Something about an everyday medium that normally covers topics and records events we consider commonplace (sports, politics, violent crimes, etc.) instead chronicling astonishment and intrigue is uniquely appealing—perhaps because it reminds us that the world is not constantly a cold, dull place. Two of my favorite examples of these are “The ballad of the Chowchilla bus kidnapping,” which recounts the hijacking of a school bus and the nationwide fervor that followed, and “Pellet Ice is the Good Ice,” which takes a deep dive into a kind of ice cube that’s hard to come by and unrivaled in quality. 

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Review: ‘The Rescue’ is a Solid, Uplifting Doc

If there’s one thing we don’t lack these days, it’s disaster. With horror and death always just one click away, we are more aware than ever of the precarious nature of the world around us. That said, these events are absolutely still worth documenting, especially when they reveal an inspiring narrative.

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Review: ‘Becoming Cousteau’ Provides an Intimtate Look at the Underwater Explorer

“The only field in which I know I am gifted is cinema,” writes Jacques-Yves Cousteau, a man more remembered for his technological innovations, scientific discoveries, and charming personage than for the dozens of films and television specials that he directed. The documentary Becoming Cousteau revises the conception of the deep-sea explorer in the popular imagination, portraying him as he truly was: a complicated and multifaceted man whose passion for the sea was vital in establishing many of our modern-day environmental movements. Directed by American documentary filmmaker Liz Garbus, and produced by National Geographic, Becoming Cousteau uses a variety of multimedia sources to weave together a holistic portrait of Cousteau’s life and legacy. The film is a visual treat for anyone with an interest in marine life, and it is sure to impart upon audiences the urgency of environmentalism and ecological conversation.

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Review: ‘Flee’ is a Beautifully Intimate Portrait of an Afghan Refugee

What does it mean to have a home? Comfort? Security? Privacy? According to Amin, the mononymous subject of the recent Danish documentary Flee, home is somewhere permanent, a place where you no longer have to run. Amin Nawabi, a name that the film directly acknowledges is a pseudonym, fled his home in Afghanistan at a young age and eventually made his way to Denmark, where he began an academic career. Flee finds Amin on the brink of a new chapter in his life, as he and his boyfriend plan to get married and buy a house. But before he can settle down, Amin feels the need to address his past and tell the whole story of his years-long journey.

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Review: At Least ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ Isn’t As Bad As It Could Have Been

Here on the internet, we all love discourse, and what produces discourse better than a film adaptation of an infamously controversial stage musical?

Dear Evan Hansen premiered just a few weeks ago, but the memes and critiques have been going strong for months, if not years. Based on the Justin Paul, Benj Pasek, and Steven Levenson musical that took Broadway by storm—and changed the shape of theater kid beef for generations to come—the film is a pretty average teenage drama. Socially anxious and virtually friendless, Evan Hansen (Ben Platt) accidentally inserts himself into the middle of a family tragedy when his therapy exercise is mistaken for the suicide note of his peer, Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan). Spinning a web of lies and fake emails, Evan attempts to offer what he believes to be hope to the grieving family, all while becoming closer and closer to Connor’s sister Zoe (Kaitlyn Dever), his long-time crush. When Evan’s house of cards inevitably begins to collapse, he is forced to ask himself what it means to help others, and what it means to help yourself.

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