The Holdovers - Review

 

It would be very easy to oversimplify and emotionally manipulate an audience with the premise of The Holdovers. Thankfully, director Alexander Payne has no interesting in that version. What we get instead is a heartwarming holiday treat that never once feels forced, yet maintains an emotional resonance that most films reach for but never accomplish. With a stellar trio at the center and sharp script backing it, The Holdovers might just be the must-see of the season.

The Killer - Review

If you follow the pattern of every other film wowing audiences, director David Fincher’s newest outing should be nothing short of fantastic. Fortunately, The Killer more than meets that description. The gleefully cold, wildly entertaining, and surprisingly funny film takes the often imitated bloodshed of its revenge narrative and imbues it with influences from across the globe.

Killers of the Flower Moon - Review

 There is a small line in Killers of the Flower Moon that so succinctly summarizes the film’s themes its a wonder they didn’t use it as the tagline (though it was used in a trailer). “Do you see the wolves in this picture?” is pulled from a children’s book about the Osage Nation read by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Ernest Burkhardt, pointing out the predators that seek to feast on those around them, and perfectly setting up Martin Scorsese’s ambitious adaptation. The biggest difference being, the wolves of this story are hiding in plain sight, dealing out death and violence with a mundane attitude and little hesitation, so long as it benefits them.