The Tony Award-winning musical hits the big screen with Wicked: Part One. Due to being born with green skin, Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) has been subjected to much prejudice, particularly from her father Governor Thropp (Andy Nyman) of Munchkinland, who gives preferential treatment to Elphaba’s wheelchair-bound sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode). While accompanying Nessarose to Shiv…
The future President of Panem mentors and falls for a tribute of the tenth annual Hunger Games in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. In the years since the Dark Days, Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) lives in squalor with his cousin Tigris (Hunter Schafer) and Grandma’am (Fionnula Flanagan). Coriolanus is hoping to…
The Autobots join forces with the Maximals to save the planet Earth in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. In 1994 Brooklyn, Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos) resorts to carjacking to support his family, but the car he ends up breaking into turns out to be the Autobot Mirage (Pete Davidson), who is called into action by…
The relationship between six guide dogs on their owners are explored in Buddy. Even though guide dogs are a necessary need of their owners, the connection that develops between the two are often deeper than any other relationship in their lives. Filmmaker Heddy Honigmann follows six guide dogs and what what they mean to their…
The people and science behind the “CRISPR Revolution” are explored in Human Nature. Since the 1970s, scientists have been experimenting with gene therapy. However, since this is a random process, the results of such experiments could not be controlled. However, with the discovery of CRISPR, it has become increasingly possible to manipulate human DNA to…
A doctor researches a humane treatment for three schizophrenic mental patients in Three Christs. Set in 1959, Dr. Alan Stone (Richard Gere) arrives at Ypsilanti State Hospital to perform a behavioral study with Joseph Cassell (Peter Dinklage), Clyde Benson (Bradley Whitford), and Leon Gabor (Walton Goggins), three schizophrenic patients who believe they are Jesus Christ. Along with his…
The childhood of two siblings are documented by their filmmaker mother in Brothers. Aslaug Holm has been filming the lives of her sons Marcus and Lukas since birth. Events such as Lukas’ first day at school and Marcus’ soccer aspirations are captured over the course of around eight years. As the boys progressively get older, Holm…
The Austrian sci-fi/horror film The Station focuses on a team of scientists on a Climate Research Base in the German Alps. Lead by Janek (Gerhard Liebmann), the team discovers a blood-like red liquid coming out of a nearby glacier. It turns out that this liquid contains a single-celled organism, which infects local wildlife, developing into…
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…
Oliver Stone did an interesting thing with this biopic of president George W. Bush. While he could have have took the opportunity to trash than man for his many bad decisions in the White House, the film instead takes a sympathetic view at Bush’s life. The main plot involves the actions leading into and directly…
