Directed by: Kari Skogland Rating: 8/10 Review by: Scott Reckers As opposed to a surface-level Marvel series where Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes just march around, beating up bad guys, the show faces its characters with tough decisions. Taking a refreshing look at systemic issues like racism and police brutality in America, the show sees Marvel taking a sharp left […]
Read moreDirected by: Florian Zeller Rating: 8/10 Review by: Raghav Raj The first thing that practically leaps off the screen in the opening moments of The Father is the sheer disarray of it all. As Olivia Colman’s character walks to her apartment, striding intently, the camera seems caught off balance by her, almost struggling to stay with her as she walks […]
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Raghav Raj | Staff Writer With Zack Snyder’s absolutely massive, 4-hour long director’s cut of the 2017 DC film Justice League in the spotlight, there’s a renewed interest in the “long movie,” a remarkably volatile cinematic experience that serves as a double edged sword for any viewers up to the task. If a filmmaker gets it wrong, you’re stuck sitting […]
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Review by: Scott Reckers Director: Adam Wingard Rating 7/10 Godzilla may be the “King of the Monsters,” but Kong bows to no one. The two stars of the ‘Monsterverse’ have finally clashed together, and the promise of a visual spectacle is fulfilled. The current state of visual effects is the future we dreamed of years ago, and the fight scenes […]
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Raghav Raj | Staff Writer In an awards season flipped on its head now that COVID-19 has left most movie theaters shuttered for a year, rendering the box office almost all but irrelevant, few films have received the amount of plaudits that Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland has. And, many might argue, for good reason. Zhao’s third feature film is a visually […]
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Review by: Della Johnson Directed by: Don Hall, Carlos Lopez Estrada Rating: 7/10 Disney’s newest princess film felt very familiar. As a strong female warrior with a sarcastic dragon sidekick, Raya certainly mirrored Mulan, the other princess to hail from an Asian country, and her consistent travel by boat lent itself a bit to Moana. Still, the movie itself fostered […]
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Review by: Raghav Raj Directed by: Lee Isaac Chung Rating: 9/10 Right from the very beginning, Minari feels utterly, unmistakably entrancing. It is shot in warm, gentle hues by cinematographer Lachlan Milne, who fills the screen with these muted oranges, lush greens, and rich, earthy browns. These colors are met with woozy, contemplative scoring from Emile Mosseri, whose strings and […]
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Review by: Scott Reckers Director: Matt Shakman Rating: 8/10 WandaVision, directed by Matt Shakman, is the first Marvel Cinematic Universe show on Disney+, and six episodes through, it’s a perplexing watch to say the least. Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch (played by Elizabeth Olsen), and Vision (Paul Bettany) are a couple of newlyweds and have just moved to a new […]
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Review by: Raghav Raj Director: Sam Levinson Rating: 2/10 The first thing you notice about Malcolm & Marie, the latest project from Sam Levinson (creator of the hit HBO show Euphoria), is how sumptuous it looks. The 35-mm black-and-white film it’s shot on offers a certain grain to the visual imagery of its spacious beach house setting, playing up the […]
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Director: Pete Doctor Rating: 9/10 Review by: Evan Ponstingle Soul, the latest Disney/Pixar film, and first to officially be released on Disney+, truly plays out like a symphony. The plot revolves around a struggling jazz musician and part-time band teacher, Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), whose soul is cast into a whimsical adventure after he meets his untimely demise on the […]
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Series Creator: Chris Van Dusen Rating: 8/10 Review by: Abby Waechter Taking place in a fictional 19th century English society, the eight-part Netflix series Bridgerton has romance, drama, comedy, and scandal. Although it’s undoubtedly a cliché when love prevails and the guy gets the girl, Bridgerton successfully pulls it off, a chaotic tale of courtship between the Duke of Hastings and […]
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Director: David Fincher Rating: 7/10 Review by: Raghav Raj Mank, David Fincher’s first feature film in six years, begins the same way a lot of his others do, by throwing the audience into the midst of chaos with very little to latch on to. Before, in films like Se7en and Fight Club, this overload of information felt tonally pitch-perfect, as […]
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With 2020 coming to a close, the Chronicle Staff is looking back at the best, most binge-able television released over this past year. Without further ado, here are some staff picks for the best shows of the year. Abby Waechter | Staff Writer Evan Romansky’s original Netflix Series Ratched imagines the complex backstory of Nurse Ratched, a character long understood […]
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Review by Raghav Raj Director: Sophia Coppola Rating: 6/10 Review: By the time Sofia Coppola’s latest film, On The Rocks, finds any sense of urgency, it’s approximately 10 minutes away from rolling the credits. Up until this point, the endeavor that Laura (Rashida Jones) and her mischievous bon-vivant father (the ever-affable Bill Murray) have embarked on — to find out […]
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Della Johnson | Staff Writer Director: Harry Bradbeer Rating: 4/10 Review: Netflix’s newest project, the two-hour-long film Enola Holmes, is rated PG-13. This rating is, in some ways, misleading. Set in 19th century England, the story follows young teen Enola, younger sister of Sherlock Holmes and budding detective, on her journey to find her vanished mother. Through the usage of a […]
Read moreRaghav Raj | Staff Writer Director: Christopher Nolan Rating: 5/10 To put it quite simply: Tenet is a mess. The latest feature film from director Christopher Nolan could almost verge on self-parody if it wasn’t so insistent on taking itself seriously all the time. It takes a bevy of Nolan trademarks — the rumbling score, the intricate plot, the obsession […]
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