This marks the first time I blog about EMMY nominations because normally I don’t watch that much TV. Well, the past year I managed to watch quite a bit of them to actually be excited that some of my favorites got nominated. FX network must…
At first glance, the plot seems similar to last year’s NYAD centered on Diana Nyad, a female marathon swimmer who at the age of 64 finally realized her dream to swim from Cuba to Florida in 2013. Well, 87 before Nyad made history, Gertrude…
I have a love-hate relationship with rom-coms. It’s not my go-to genre (unless it’s written/directed by Nora Ephron or Richard Curtis) because I think it’s really tough to write for this genre without succumbing to clichés. The pairing of…
There are several movies made already about the 1960s space race, but anything ‘old’ can feel new again if it’s presented from a different angle. Fly Me to the Moon might not be your thing if you’re searching for an in-depth look at moon…
People love nostalgia in movies, and that’s why plenty of legacy characters get a comeback decades later. The first Beverly Hills Cop was released 40 years ago in 1984, Eddie Murphy was just a young’un 23-year-old at the time. Dayum, the…
I haven’t done a trailer spotlight for ages, and there just haven’t been any upcoming films that get me pumped like Gladiator II. So let’s just get to it, shall we? Whoa!! What a jolt of energy to see this trailer in the morning! Ok, so…
Though he’s only been making movies for less than two decades, Jeff Nichols has become one of my favorite contemporary filmmakers. I’ve seen four out of his six films (still need to see Shotgun Stories and Take Shelter) and loved every…
There have been some memorable parent-child films I’ve seen of late: Nowhere Special, Ezra, and Ghostlight, to name a few. Here we have a single mother named Janet who lives with her 11-year-old daughter Lacy in rural Massachusetts. What…
Happy Fourth, my fellow Americans! ???????? I haven’t done a Music Break post in ages… it’s a series I hope to do more regularly, perhaps every other month. For today, I thought I’d commemorate America’s Independence Day with a trio of…
Directed by: H.P. Mendoza Written by: Jesse Orenshein Telling a story about grief through comedy isn’t easy. You don’t want to come across as flippant, but you want to provide enough levity to make an incredibly difficult emotion more…
Happy July, everyone! Right smack dab in the middle of summer, and the weather has been as erratic as ever, the wind is especially nasty lately. Minnesota even made news for all the floods all over the state thanks to all the rain we’ve…
Directed by: Thordur Palsson Written by: Jamie Hannigan While we here in Minnesota are having a relatively mild (albeit wet) summer, it might be hard to imagine being chilled to the bone this time of year. However, today’s movie, with its…
I don’t normally go for horror movies, but I decided to check out A Quiet Place a few years ago and loved it enough to watch Part II. So with this prequel, this marks the first horror franchise I’ve seen in my entire life. The film’s…
There is so much serialized content on streaming right now that it’s tough to figure out which ones to invest your time in. I started the first season of Tokyo Vice over a year ago, and it’s one of the best series I’ve seen in a long time.…
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me? Yeah, tell that to Andrew McCarthy. The fact is, words can hurt and they have the power to impact us for years, even decades. For McCarthy, these two words had stayed with…
Today marks Summer Solstice 2024, but it’s a somber day for movie lovers everywhere with the passing of acting legend Donald Sutherland. Known for his versatile performances in movies like M*A*S*H, Ordinary People, Don’t Look Now, and The…
A week and a half ago, I read a headline that shocked me, but in a good way. Per EMPIRE, the Academy is currently exploring the possibility of adding a stunt category at the Oscars. Quoted in that EMPIRE article, Academy CEO Bill Kramer…
What do a construction worker who has never acted before and the most famous Shakespeare play have in common? Not much at first glance, but directors Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson are somehow able to connect two seemingly unrelated…
It’s been nearly a decade since the first Inside Out movie came out. That movie really stood out with its unique depiction of the emotional landscape of the human mind. It’s extra fun for me to see a character from Minnesota, just like the…
This list has been long overdue, as I’ve published this favorite Pixar character list over a decade ago! Well, with the release of Inside Out 2, I thought I’d list my favorite Pixar movies since Toy Story in 1995, nearly 30 years ago.…
One of the most buzz-worthy movies out of Venice and TIFF is Hit Man, the latest movie from Richard Linklater starring Glen Powell. Apparently, it’s Powell who found the idea for the movie in a 2001 Texas Monthly article about fake…
Let me start this review with a confession: I haven’t seen the previous three Bad Boys movies, and my introduction to this franchise is via Edgar Wright’s zany action comedy Hot Fuzz (2007). Can’t believe it’s been almost 30 years since…
I don’t consider myself a big monster movie fan, though I have seen a few that I enjoyed (Pacific Rim rocks!). I still haven’t seen the original Japanese-made Godzilla movie in 1954, but I was curious to see Godzilla Minus One after it won…
I’m particularly intrigued by the premise of EZRA as my 3-year-old nephew has been diagnosed with ASD (autism spectrum disorder). Per the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), 1 in 36 children have autism, with boys being 4…
Happy June, everyone! May has been a bit of an odd duck weather-wise. An MPR host said the other day that if you don’t like the weather, just wait a few minutes, ha! Sure enough, it’s been alternating between windy, sunny, and rainy in…
Western isn’t my go-to genre, though there are some terrific Westerns that I’ve come to love: Big Country, 3:10 To Yuma (2007 version), Hell or High Water, True Grit, and The Rider, to name a few. This one intrigued me right away because…
Happy Memorial Day! ???????? Just in time for Memorial Weekend, The Blue Angels documentary dropped on Prime Video. My hubby and I had hoped to see this on IMAX, alas it wasn’t playing on any IMAX or Dolby theater near us, so we decided to…
Hollywood loves origin stories but not every character deserves to have their backstories told as a standalone feature. Furiosa however, is one character that not only deserves but demands to have her story told. I’m a huge fan of Mad Max:…
I missed seeing The Last Daughter at MSPIFF even though it’s one of the 15 documentaries I featured in this post. But thanks to a chance meeting with the co-director of the film, Nathaniel Schmidt during the festival, I was able to watch…
May 20th is World Bee Day so I thought I’d post a review of a movie called The Beekeeper ???? This was one of the movies I watched on a recent long flight to Croatia. I wasn’t initially enthused about this, as Jason Statham’s last two…