Cinema and Popcorn

SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY Director Destin Daniel Cretton has always handled his stories with sensibility from smaller films like Short Term 12 and Just Mercy to  Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - and Spider-Man: Brand New Day is no exception as there's a sense of bringing back some humanity and next-room quality to Peter Parker again. Tom Holland is back to the title role and brings his usual sympathy to Peter, but this time he is a loser, an every-day guy trying to do the right thing in an almost perfect blend between Sam Raimi's vision and the more MCU-driven approach. This spidey has the likeability of the boy next door and it's captivating to watch Tom Holland playing him, but the show belongs to Sadie Sink who delivers a strong and heartfelt turn and ends-up owning the movie. Great visual effects! Solid. R: 7/10 THE END OF OAK STREET Every year I get a good surprise at the theatre when going to the movies during Summer blockbuster season. Last year it was ...

Genre: Comedy; Drama. Director: Olivia Wilde Writers: Will McCormack & Rashida Jones Starring: Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton It's been a while since a movie this simple had me totally gripped. Olivia Wilde's simple but razor sharp and delightfully fulfilling cinematic venture had me laughing out loud at times and left me with watery eyes by the end. It's a movie that makes you care for the central relationship as the leads explore themselves in the light of other couple's eyes. A comedy-drama this rare deserves to seen at the theatre. Pretty much like a Woody Allen approach, Olivia Wilde's lets us know the main characters and some of their inner anguishes before introducing the disrupting supporting players that enter the scene in order to set the central narrative on fire. We get to know Angela (Wilde) and Joe (Rogen) are a bit lost in their everyday routine drama with their relationship is barely afloat and that they crave the life...

Genre: Drama; Fantasy; Adventure. Director: Christopher Nolan Writer: Christopher Nolan Starring: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, John Leguizamo, Himseh Patel, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, Lupita Nyong'o, Elliot Page, Charlize Theron, Corey Hawkins and Travis Scott It took me a while to write this review, because there are many aspects of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey that have left me in many grey areas in terms of creating an opinion. The more I think about this movie the more I understand how cerebral Nolan is as a writer/director and that I shouldn't have been expecting an emotional journey... but in the middle of so many meanings and so many messages, my question was "where is its heart?". My answer is: "In Penelope, not in Odysseus!", which turns The Odyssey in a spectacular epic yet sterile adventure with some glimpses of a beating heart! I am not familiar with the original source material - I know a sho...

TUNER Gripping, thrilling, emotionally satisfying and brilliantly edited, Tuner proves Daniel Roher is a director to watch and Leo Woodall has everything needed in order to become a major movie star (and Dustin Hoffman still has some acting gems to deliver). It might draw some ressemblance with 2017's Baby Driver , but unlike Ansel Elgort's starring vehicle, Tuner is far darker and it feels more like a personal affair than an entertaining flick. A movie about sound, a movie about family and a movie about doing means that justify outcomes, Tuner can well be one of the very best movies of the year (so far at least). It has it all: a pathos, a soul, a heart and... it's such an entertaining movie ride! R: 9,5/10 TOY STORY 5 Another solid TOY STORY adventure that perfectly blends entertainment with soulful meaning, this one is an animated satire about one of the most human things: playing and use your imagination. In an era of tech and luminous touch screens, this one wastes no ...

Genre: Drama; Sci-fi; Action Director: Steven Spielberg Writer: David Koepp Starring: Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson and Colman Domingo While I don't have that much knowledge about the Disclosure Archives and UFO theories and proof, cinematically speaking I thought Spielberg's latest is a copy paste of ideas from other movies like Arrival , E.T. and X-Men ... and they all make an alien version of the Our Lady of Fátima. Still... there are a big couple of aspects to praise and that make this movie watchable, with Emily Blunt being the greatest of them. The movie starts as a mystery thriller as two different narratives are told and you just wonder when will they intersect and in which terms: a cybersecurity expert that steals some confidential material and a weather girl who start experiencing strange things during her day. And don't take me bad for saying it (but Spielberg makes no mystery about it), but the stolen material are proof of alien exist...

June not only marks the post-Cannes awards talk and the Summer blockbuster season, but it also means most buzzy projects have already prospects of a release date and others are in talks to premiere in Venice, TIFF, Telluride or NYFF: crucial points for the awards season. While some might complain it is too early since most buzzy projects have only landed in European film festivals and American audiences and critics are different than the European ones, I believe the reception some project have received and which distributor picked it might already say a lot. Plus, it's always fun when we see which of our early picks materializes during awards season. While some questions still haunt me: Is Malick's The Way of the Wind being released, finally? Is digger another Birdman or will it be another Bardo ? Which movie or movies will get Sandra Hüller another Oscar nod (since she's destined to rule this year)? Will The Odyssey be a contender in acting and writing fields? Can the Aca...

MOTHER MARY  Anne Hathaway and, specially, Michaela Coel shine in a movie that feels really about... nothing! Stellar cinematography and inspired set pieces with some pretty smart and fluid transitions make Mother Mary impressive to look at at times, but feels like a sterile piece of filmmaking full of empty dialogue and music sequences I wish they were longer. Yes, it's the best Anne Hathaway performance since Rachel Getting Married and seeing her taking on a darker character sure is enough reason to watch it, but this film transported me to a cinematic void that didn't ignite a single emotion from me. It's a cinematic painting and maybe it's my problem that I didn't find the meaning behind it. R: 4/10 MICHAEL It's not as bad as some reactions made me believe, but it's not good either. It's a convential fan-friendly cash grabber biopic that never really explores the real Michael Jackson but makes it a Wikipedia-check cinematic journey. Jaafar Jackson s...

Genre: Horror; Comedy. Director: Curry Barker Writer: Curry Barker Starring: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless and Andy Richter I went to Obsession totally blind besides seeing a released dinner date scene and the movie caught me completely off guard: I loved it!  It's a simple yet well-executed concept that depicts the terror of toxic relationships from the extreme perspective of the horror genre - which is a quite smart concept and a much needed satire about toxic relationships people often endure. It's an unexpected future classic and I believe we will be talking about this flick not only all year long, but also for years to come!  At its core, Obsession is about "careful what you wish for", but it turns into a movie with a much deeper meaning many might see at surface. Curry Barker writes an ambiguous leading man - perfectly brought to life by Michael Johnston - as Bear gains the audiences' sympathy as the boy next door who...

The Cannes Film Festival jury cannot award the Palme d'Or in combination with other prizes. However, acting and screenplay prizes can be combined with the Jury Prize, which can have more than one honoree - something that has already happened four times since 2019 (considering there was no Cannes Film Festival edtition in 2020) - and with the Grand Prix (despite being less common with this one because of the high level of prestige of winning the Grand Prix itself). I think in order to try to predict, it's important to have in mind who are part of the jury: Park Chan-wook, South Korean filmmaker (Jury President). Diego Céspedes, Chilean filmmaker. Isaach de Bankolé, Ivorian actor. Paul Laverty, Irish-Scottish screenwriter. Demi Moore, American actress. Ruth Negga, Ethiopian-Irish actress. Stellan Skarsgård, Swedish actor. Laura Wandel, Belgian filmmaker. Chloé Zhao, Chinese filmmaker. So, it's a mostly European jury, with some fresh voices, like Céspedes or Wandel, but it...