Smart reviews for the visually obsessed. On Screen features film reviews and festival coverage, spotlighting cinematic craft, storytelling and standout performances.
‘In the Heights’ is a dynamic musical that tells a hearteningly universal story about figuring out one’s place in the world and succeeding on your own terms.
‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’ takes the franchise in a new direction as it trades a haunting for a lethal possession with limited success.
‘Cruella’ paints a more sympathetic, but still delirious portrait of a woman driven by her sense of style and desire to be at the forefront of fashion.
Profile uses a new and emerging film genre to explore a social phenomenon, but should have put a little more thought towards the characters’ arcs rather than solely focusing on the format.
‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ pits two of cinema’s iconic giants in a battle to the death, as neither will submit but both claim dominance.
‘The Father’ is an incredibly moving film that embodies the confusion and loneliness dementia has on the afflicted and those closest to them.
‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ is a fantastical world in which all the dragons — except one — gave their lives to save the human race, but their power is once again needed to beat back the evil before it’s too late.
‘The Little Things’ uses its Oscar-winning cast to act out a murder mystery in which everyone’s motives become increasingly blurred.
To this day, a segment of society finds women with power problematic. More notably, they find women who take power uncouth and even frightening. A woman who seeks to level the playing field or — heaven forbid — gain the upper-hand, is a threat to the status quo and thus a threat to the patriarchy. Therefore, when a movie portrays this change in dynamics, but doesn’t adhere to the way these situations have typically been portrayed, it’s deemed to be lacking or false. If a woman is going to assume a position of power, it has to be in a manner that is expected and, consequently, acceptable because it was designed by men. Promising Young Woman throws all of that out the window.
One of the things that’s become clear over the last decade of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the studio is not afraid to take risks when it comes to storytelling style. Consequently, Guardians of the Galaxy became a box office hit, and Thor: Ragnarok broke new comedic ground much to the acclaim of moviegoers and critics alike. While the company partnered with Netflix to bring several characters’ stories to the small screen, their new television venture is going in a wholly new direction. Leveraging the power of their subscription streaming platform, Disney+, the studio will be launching a number of series exploring Marvel personalities who’ve been spotlight adjacent. First up is WandaVision, which is launching with episodes one and two of a nine-episode season that focus on a pair who captured each other’s and audience’s hearts with their unconventional romance and tragic conclusion — in spite of getting very little screen time in the grand scheme of things.
Even though Marvel’s cinematic universe dominated theatres for more than a decade, they hadn’t gained equal supremacy in the realm of female heroes who often fought alongside their male counterparts with less recognition. In 2017, DC seized the opportunity and gave their Amazonian princess a title film directed by Patty Jenkins. The result was not only on-par with some of the best superhero pictures, but it created a lot of anticipation for the film’s sequel. After some delay due to the global pandemic, fans finally get to see the long-awaited follow-up, Wonder Woman 1984.
While witches flying on broomsticks are an iconic symbol of Halloween, one has to wonder what they do for the other 364 days a year. Also, if they look as hideous as the holiday’s decorations suggest, how do they go unnoticed for all that time? In 1983, Roald Dahl wrote a story about a heinous group of witches with a sinister plan and an alternative family who will do everything in their power to stop them. The book was first adapted in 1990 with the help of Jim Henson, and now director Robert Zemeckis — who is no stranger to special effects-heavy pictures — has taken a turn. Roald Dahl’s The Witches is a relatively faithful adaptation of Dahl’s tale, though it’s been transported to 1968 Alabama.
