Tag: 2025
-
How Obsession Benefits from the Moment, Not the Material
Many things can derail a cinematic experience, and overhype sits near the top of that list. When a film is elevated beyond what it can reasonably sustain, expectations begin to work against it. Every flaw is magnified, every gap in logic or execution becomes more visible, and the conversation shifts from appreciation to dissection. It…
-
Where Performance Ends, and Connection Begins: Rental Family
The search is always on for films that offer something a little different, something that reframes the ordinary. That power of resonance, when a film earns it, is what separates the memorable from the merely watchable. Rental Family earns it. It didn’t just deliver on its premise; it overdelivers, and here’s how. Brendan Fraser in…
-
No Rest for the Haunted: FNAF 2 Review
When I first heard of Five Nights at Freddy’s, my curiosity was piqued, though I’ll admit I had my reservations. It wasn’t so much that it was based on a popular video game—that didn’t bother me. What gave me pause was the fact that the antagonists were a gaggle of animatronics. I’d seen a few…
-
Nothing New Under the Sun—But Primitive War Makes It Interesting Anyway
Ideas for film arise from countless spaces—both inside and outside the writer. Many filmmakers choose to hone in on issues with greater relevance to the current time and place to amplify resonance. The 2026 film Primitive War stands as such an example—proof that there is truly nothing new under the sun, but with every revolution…
-
Beyond the Stars and Sanity: What Makes The Astronaut Tick
Science fiction is a genre for explorers, for the great imaginers of the vast beyond—the not-yet-existent, the possibilities waiting to emerge. As Ray Bradbury once remarked, “In science fiction, we dream. In order to colonize in space, to rebuild our cities, which are so far out of whack, to tackle any number of problems, we…
-
Two Loves, One Choice: “Eternity” Tugs at the Heartstrings
Sometimes the moment calls for lighthearted fare—a film, a book, or a painting that invokes feelings of calm and quiet restoration. The 2025 feature film “Eternity” was my choice for such a reprieve, a much-needed escape from the madness of the world. Eternity “Eternity,” as its name suggests, explores life after death. In this particular…
-
Coming Home to Miyagi-Do: Karate Kid: Legends Reconnects a Franchise
Every industry has its markers—eras that define not only innovation but impact. For cinema, the 1980s stand as the age of the blockbuster: a decade marked by creative risk, audience trust, and films whose resonance has endured for generations. As one devoted fan of the period aptly notes, there was something singular about those films:…
-
The Architecture of Epic: Why Stranger Things Exists in a Category of Its Own
I watched Stranger Things from its very premiere. I was drawn in by its parallel to the era I grew up in—what many nostalgically call the “good old days.” While I cannot say I wholly subscribe to that framing, the emotional pull of the nostalgia was undeniable. There was a potency in its atmosphere, in…
-
Challenging Expectations: How Predator: Badlands Reframes the Predator Mythos
Solid setup. Predator: Badlands hits the structural beats where it needs to. Sometimes, first watches can be misleading and lend themselves to prescriptive bias, and such was the case with my initial viewing of Predator: Badlands. A second watch—with one singular element adjusted—redirected my perspective and opened my eyes to why a second or even…
-
Rosario: A Case Where Curiosity Conjured a Catastrophe
With some films, everything is predictable. The films seem to be written to be predictable, so much so that they lack any resonance or materialism. This seems to be the case with the 2025 horror film “Rosario.” ” A film with a pulse but not a heartbeat. A Premonitory Meeting This is the story of…
Uncut Diamonds 