A woman refuses to give up hope looking for her missing YouTuber sister in Shelby Oaks. Riley Brennan (Sarah Durn) was the post of the popular ghost-hunting YouTube series Paranormal Paranoids. In 2008, Riley and her team went missing after investigating the ghost town of Shelby Oaks, Ohio, known for its supposedly haunted amusement park. …
Keith David
An African-American author’s satirical novel becomes a sudden and unexpected hit in American Fiction. Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) is an author and English professor, who is placed on a leave of absence after a confrontation with an overtly politically correct student. In addition, Monk is informed by his literary agent Arthur (John Ortiz) that …
The owners of a horse ranch try to capture proof of a UFO in the area in NOPE. OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) is the owner of the Haywood Hollywood Horse ranch, who has been struggling to make ends meets after the sudden unexplained death of his father Otis Haywood Sr. (Keith David) six months earlier. …
Full Disclosure: I’m friends with director Ry Levey and contributed to this film’s crowdfunding campaign The history of LGBTQIA+ representation in pro wrestling is explored in Out in the Ring. It can be argued that there has always been a homoerotic element to the world of professional wrestling. However, queer representation in sports entertainment has …
The animated classic receives a photorealistic update with The Lion King. The son of Mufasa (James Earl Jones) and Sarabi (Alfre Woodard), young Simba (JD McCrary) is destined to one day become the king of the Pride Lands. However, Mufasa’s jealous brother Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor) plots to usurp the throne for his own, with the …
A high school dropout sets out to earn his GED in Night School. Teddy Walker (Kevin Hart) is a high school dropout, who tries very hard to hide this fact from his fiance Lisa (Megalyn Echikunwoke), out of fear that she’s out of his league. When Teddy suddenly finds himself out of work, he is offered a …
An Indian man raised in Australia tries to find his hometown with the help of Google Earth in Lion. Saroo (Sunny Pawar) is an Indian boy living with his mother Kamla (Priyanka Bose) and older brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate) in an impoverished neighborhood. One day Saroo accompanies Guddu on trip and is left by his …
A private investigator and enforcer reluctantly team up to locate a missing woman in The Nice Guys. Holland March (Ryan Gosling) is a private investigator in 1977 Los Angeles, who is currently looking for a missing girl named Amelia Kutner (Margaret Qualley). However, Amelia doesn’t want to be found and hires Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) to tell …
Six weeks into its release, I finally caught up with Cloud Atlas, the epic multi-story film directed by the collaboration of Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) and Andy and Lana Wachowski (The Matrix). The film is based on the novel of the same name by David Mitchell and features a large ensemble cast that includes …
The Thing is supposed to a prequel to the 1982 John Carpenter sic-fi/horror classic, rather than a remake. This is apparent early on in the film, where a group of scientists on a Norwegian base in Antarctica discover the alien creature buried in the ice. However, the film begins to move really close to remake territory as …
I should make clear that there was no reason to remake the Frank Oz-directed 2007 original other than the fact that it was British and had a limited release. That said, the Chris Rock-starring remake ended up being not all that bad and I was pleasantly surprised by the film. For the most part the …
After directing two feature-length stop-motion films under the production of Tim Burton (those being The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach), Henry Selick branches out on his own for Coraline. Of course, even though Burton is not involved with the film, you can feel a Burtonesque influence throughout. I thought the film …