Flash Frames

Still from The Monkey It’s pretty fascinating to see how popular Osgood Perkins has become. I’ve really seen all except for one of his films, and I’ve enjoyed all of them. Both The Blackcoat’s Daughter and Gretel & Hansel almost feel gothic in how dour they both are, but I think if you’re into movies at all, you know that one of the biggest horror movies of last year was Longlegs , an almost-throwback to FBI serial killer thrillers like The Silence of the Lambs . While I didn’t fully love the movie, there’s so much in Longlegs that works in its favor: The atmospheric dread that tinges even the very small comedic elements; the performances from Maika Monroe, Blair Underwood, and a delightful Nicolas Cage; even down to the oversized presidential portrait of Bill Clinton. Outside of the main reveal of what was actually happening, I really dug Longlegs , and his next film is already here, which ended up being a massive horror team-up: Perkins directing and adapting a Stephen King sh...

Fernanda Torres in I’m Still Here I’m almost done with getting through the Best Picture nominees this year, and there’s gonna be a post about ranking all ten of those movies very soon. I do have to give some background with this, though, mainly because it did have to do with my experience while watching I’m Still Here , the latest film from legendary Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles. My first exposure to the movie was lead actress Fernanda Torres’s surprise win in Best Actress in a Drama at the Golden Globes over big names like Nicole Kidman and Pamela Anderson. I can’t have been the only one to decide to go “okay, I’ll watch this now” once it would hit a theater that was closer to me. Admittedly, I was still worried that this wouldn’t get to theaters. Sony Pictures Classic unfortunately don’t release their movies in my area theatrically too often, but I’m glad they aren’t dropping the ball with I’m Still Here . I went into this completely blind, other than Fernanda Torres leading the...

Still from SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) I’m aware that I have my blindspots in film, so this post is going to be a little bit outside of my comfort zone. Documentaries haven’t only been pretty tough for me to write about, but I haven’t seen a lot of the popular documentaries. When it comes to documentaries on things I know a good amount about, I think I could maybe get something down together. There are two recent documentaries that I’ve recently seen that really should’ve gotten more awards consideration. The first is Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story , and as incredible as this was to see in a theater, the Oscars normally don’t nominate the celebrity-focused documentaries that feel one step away from a biopic. The second is Mati Diop’s Dahomey , and I was really shocked that this didn’t get any sort of love. It did win the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, though, which is a huge honor. It was shortlisted in a couple categories, but it didn’t make the cut a...

Anthony Mackie in Captain America: Brave New World Since this is the first MCU movie I’m actually talking about and reviewing, I might as well start off with a little preamble on where I think this franchise is heading. Right now, it feels like Marvel is too big to fully collapse like the past DC movies, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn't at least concerned. I understand that their original plan with Jonathan Majors playing Kang as the big villain pretty much fell apart at the seams, so even if it’s cope, I think they’re still trying to figure out what exactly is happening with these movies. To me, the past few MCU movies have been fine. Not disasters or masterpieces, they ended up somewhere in the middle: watchable while they’re on. There are some that have risen above that like Deadpool & Wolverine , the last Doctor Strange movie, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 , and that’s not even mentioning the shows. Loki hit hard for me, but the rest I’ve seen have just been okay. E...

I needed a picture to put here, so here’s Twin Peaks . I know that this site is just getting started, but I figured I should talk about what my writing process is like. I’m not entirely sure how long this post is going to be, but I think this is not only going to be an important marker to the reader (criteria and all that) but it’ll also be important to me as a writer. I’m always trying to improve on Flash Frames, especially when it comes to the actual content. I’m always trying to whittle down just what makes me tick as a writer, so maybe this could be why some of my reviews are just… not good. No other way to say it, I have my off days. That’s why this is going to be the featured post, the first thing you’ll see when you go to the home page. Let’s get into it. I know that this is stating the obvious, but you’re here to read my thoughts on different movies, shows, all that stuff. A lot of the reviews on here are for newer releases, but I have to keep my creative juices flowing. You’re...

Still from Heart Eyes I’m sort of stunned by the response to this one. I’m not entirely sure where this came from, but Heart Eyes has really become the big discussion of January/February horror movies. Granted, there haven't been a lot of movies or shows (or really anything) that’s come out this year so far, but hey, we’ve got something to talk about now. Why I think this is happening is because of Eli Roth, who’s only really made one good movie, and that’s Thanksgiving . It’s an absolutely ridiculous movie, framing a slasher/murder mystery around the Thanksgiving/Black Friday holiday, but unlike Roth’s other horror movies, it leans much more into how silly the premise of a serial killer dressing up like a pilgrim and cooking one of his victims like a turkey is. That’s silly, and it knows it. Heart Eyes doesn’t lean into how goofy this idea is, which follows the “Heart Eyes Killer,” a methodical serial killer that’s been killing couples on Valentine’s Day in different cities for ...

Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson in Nickel Boys It’s not too often that I have to sit on a movie for this long. I needed to start off with that because I saw Nickel Boys a few weeks back. I want to see all of the Best Picture nominees at the Oscars this year, and this was one of them. Based on Colson Whitehead’s novel, it tells the story of two Black kids who live in an abusive reform school during the peak of segregation in the 1960s. The story is also heavily inspired by the true story of Dozier School for Boys, which was an infamous reform school in Florida that abused their students. I wanted to highlight that because I learned what inspired this story just as I was researching for this review, and it really brings a heavier weight to an already heavy movie. That’s another reason why it took me some time to reflect on Nickel Boys : Not just based on the subject matter, Nickel Boys is a movie that instantly enters the canon of instant classics. Watching this reminded me of seeing ...

Sophie Thatcher in Companion For clarity reasons, I actually saw this nearly a week ago. While Companion did open this weekend, the theater near me did a mystery screening and it ended up being an early showing of Companion . That being said, I waited this long to put up my review because this is a *very* tough movie to review without spoiling the main twist. Granted, the twist of the movie is shown in the trailer I linked at the bottom of this post, just below the grade. If you want to just skip to that letter grade, go right ahead. And if you want a very brief review, Companion is just a damn good horror-comedy, which is something that we really don’t get a lot of these days. Okay, now is **SPOILER TIME** , which means I’ll just be going into the main premise of the movie. Not detailed plot points or anything, but what this movie is has to do with why I liked it. What makes talking about Companion so interesting is the two differing synopses for the movie. The first one, which is ...

Mark Wahlberg in Flight Risk Guys, what are we doing here? At this point, you probably know who Mel Gibson is. Actor, director, a man of many controversies. That’s not what I’m here for, though. I’m not here for the controversies. What I’m here for is the movies. I’ve seen two of Gibson’s past directorial efforts, and both of them are pretty great. It still makes sense why Braveheart , a rousing historical war epic, won five Oscars including Best Picture and Gibson for his direction. The other Gibson film I’ve seen is his most recent, Hacksaw Ridge . Another war epic that followed a WWII Army medic, it also was embraced by the Academy, earning Gibson another Picture and Director nom, alongside Best Actor for Andrew Garfield’s magnificent performance. I know it seems like I’m just rattling off some facts about Gibson, but it really is worth noting that Gibson just gets it. Saying that I “disagree” with what he thinks is an understatement, but there’s a reason why his comeback with Hacks...