Flash Frames

Eiza González in Ash It’s not too often that I get to see indie horror in the theater, but I’ve tried my best to. By “indie,” I don’t mean a studio like A24 or NEON, even though they technically are indie. I mean Shudder, a studio that deals exclusively in horror and typically puts out their movies and movies they buy the right to into theaters with IFC. The last couple of Shudder films I’ve seen in theaters are In a Violent Nature , which was one of my favorite horror movies of last year, and Skinamarink , a lo-fi experimental horror movie that might just be the most terrifying experience I’ve ever had in a movie theater. That being said, I do have somewhat high expectations whenever I see the Shudder banner. Even if it’s not a great movie, I just wanna see some cool stuff, and boy did I get that with Ash , a cosmic horror/sci-fi exhibition match that pretty much snuck up on me. What Ash is ends up being a fun twist on something we’ve all seen before: Alien as a murder mystery. Riya...

Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender in Black Bag Earlier in the year, I mentioned that one of my biggest disappointments of the year so far is Presence , a horror movie from the perspective of a ghost haunting a house when a new family moves in. That movie has a lot of talent behind it, with Steven Soderbergh directing and David Koepp writing. While Soderbergh’s direction wasn’t the problem (it typically never is), Koepp’s writing was shockingly bad. That’s the guy who wrote Jurassic Park , Spider-Man , the first Mission: Impossible , and a good amount of Indiana Jones . While watching this, though, I was aware that they already had another collaboration locked and loaded in a few months: Black Bag , a sleek spy thriller led by Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett. It’s a completely different vibe from Presence , but not only is Black Bag leagues ahead of it: it’s probably the first great 2025 movie. He’s already got some great spy or spy-adjacent movies in him like the Ocean’s mo...

Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt & Ke Huy Quan in The Electric State There’s been a lot of talk online about the “death of movies” surrounding The Electric State , and from a certain point of view, I can understand why. This is a Netflix-exclusive movie, with no theatrical release that I knew of beforehand. It’s directed by the Russo Brothers; while having made some of the best/most successful movies in the MCU, their movies after their run in the MCU just haven’t landed: Cherry , The Gray Man , and now, The Electric State , an adaptation of Simon Stålenhag’s graphic novel of the same name. I haven’t read that yet, although I’ve heard very good things about it, but there’s been a big backlash to this not really being an adaptation of the book. Call me crazy, but if I can call something like Dragonball Evolution for not being a good adaptation even though I haven’t watched a single bit of anything else in that franchise, I might be able to say that about The Electric State . It also...

Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista in In the Lost Lands It’s not obvious to see why I ended up going to see this in an empty theater, but I might as well start off with saying that I love going to the movie theater. A bad movie wouldn’t ruin my experience in the theater when it’s all said and done, but having an empty theater is one of the best feelings in the world. That being said, I was fully expecting to have an entire auditorium to myself with In the Lost Lands , the latest movie from Paul W.S. Anderson. If you don’t know that name, he’s mainly the director of the original run of Resident Evil movies with Milla Jovovich, who happens to be his wife. He’s also directed the original Mortal Kombat movie from the 1990s and the sci-fi gem Event Horizon . However, Event Horizon is really the only good movie he’s made out of what I’ve seen. His other movies I’ve seen, mainly the Resident Evil movies, are something I’ve dubbed “nu-metal.” It’s not unlike the subgenre of music where bands...

Still from The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim It’s interesting to see how fast this movie came and went. Yeah, an animated fantasy movie aimed at adults isn’t exactly a wide audience in America, but just look at the title of this post. A new Lord of the Rings movie, the first ever since the Hobbit movies, hit theaters last December. Granted, I didn’t see it until now, maybe that proves just how well this ended up going. I’ve never been too into Lord of the Rings and all that, but I’ve enjoyed what I remember of those movies. I guess this is a reminder that I have to watch those again at some point. Either way, this isn’t just an animated movie: it’s anime, honest-to-god anime. When The War of the Rohirrim was first announced, I thought it would be anime-inspired, like elements of the Spider-Verse movies. I really didn’t think it’d just be anime, but once I saw that Kenji Kamiyama, the director of this, created the Ghost in the Shell series, Stand Alone Complex , that’...

Robert Pattinson and Robert Pattinson in Mickey 17 I had a certain experience with this movie that I’ve had with very few: bewilderment. When a movie ends, I usually have my mind made up on if I liked it or not. This time, though, I had no idea what to make of Mickey 17 , the latest movie from Bong Joon-ho and his first since the historic, Oscar-winning Parasite . I meant to publish this review a few days back, but I was just stunned by this movie for a while. Whether or not it was positive or negative, Mickey 17 genuinely did stump me for a while. This is based on a novel by Edward Ashton, Mickey7 , and mainly follows Mickey Barnes, a man who joins an ambitious space colony to work as an “expendable,” a disposable employee for the company that’s sent to die in various ways in the name of science to develop ways that humanity can move to a new planet. After he dies, he’s cloned with all of his memories and personality in place and sent back to work, just to die over and over again. Th...

Mikey Madison in Anora Well, here we are. The Oscars happened last night, and these are my reactions to (almost) all of the awards. They’re not live, but they’re a day later so I can actually publish them at the best quality I can. Let’s go. Bolded text = Winner Best Supporting Actor Yura Borisov – Anora Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain Edward Norton – A Complete Unknown Guy Pearce – The Brutalist Jeremy Strong – The Apprentice Immediate Reaction : Not surprised at all. Culkin swept all season and he ended up going all the way to the Oscar. I’ve gotta watch A Real Pain now, I’m not entirely sure why I’ve put it off. Best Animated Feature Film Flow Inside Out 2 Memoir of a Snail Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl The Wild Robot Immediate Reaction : Really nice!! I really thought that The Wild Robot would win, but seeing that the first independent animated movie to win an Oscar is Flow is pretty great. I can’t wait to see more videos of people’s pets reacting to this movie. Best Co...

Well, here we are. The Oscars are airing very soon, and we’re cutting right through. I’ve seen all 10 movies nominated for Best Picture, and this is how I’d rank them. 10. Emilia Pérez [dir. Jacques Audiard] [Also Nominated for: Director, Actress, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, International Film, Original Score, Original Song x2, Sound, Cinematography, Makeup & Hairstyling, Editing] I’m still blown away that this ended up getting the acclaim it got. Every win it’s gotten at other awards bodies feels like I’ve been gaslit by Netflix. Not even mentioning the many controversies that have to do with comments from the movie’s director and the lead actress, Emilia Pérez is a big mess of a movie. While it’s admittedly ambitious in some filmmaking techniques, the story is just so misguided and oddly reminds me of Mrs. Doubtfire in one of its main plot elements. There are many thinkpieces online from members of the trans community and Mexican people on how they feel about Emilia...

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in Wicked Alright, here we are. We’re basically at the finish line, but I’ve now seen every single nominee for Best Picture at the Oscars this year (I’m ranking all 10 of them tomorrow before the ceremony starts). The last of them, as you can see, is Wicked . The beloved musical took a very long time to hit the silver screen, with an official announcement of a movie coming all the way back in 2012. Admittedly, I wanted to watch this much sooner, but I was in the middle of my final semester in college. Them’s the breaks, but I got it at home and was able to get through the just-under three hour runtime at my own leisure. At this point, I’d usually go into what Wicked is, but come on, I don’t think I really have to. It’s Wicked . That being said, I should mention that this is the first part of a two-parter, with the second act, titled For Good, set to release this Thanksgiving. I mention that because I think this was a game-changing decision that really b...