Author: Mark Saldana

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) When filmmakers choose to tell their personal stories from childhood, this often makes for compelling cinema. Such is the case with Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast. Branagh, who was born and partially raised in Ireland, eventually moved to England with his family as a child, due to the… Continue reading BELFAST

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) I recently watched two similarly themed movies recently; both of which deal with unhappy women in crisis. The first one, which I also recently reviewed, is an Israeli film titled Woman Alive, a powerful and haunting movie that depicts a Jewish woman who feels trapped in… Continue reading SPENCER

By Mark Saldana Rating 3 (Out of 4 Stars) When it comes to promoting their films during awards season, Netflix has to be the master of the “hard sell.” The film production and streaming service seriously goes “HAM” with special screenings, physical screeners, coffee table books and other promotional items during the “for your consideration”… Continue reading THE HARDER THEY FALL

By Mark Saldana Rating 3 (Out of 4 Stars) As a movie critic living and working in the age of social media dominance, it is sometimes difficult to avoid spoilers and reviews from other critics and film analysts. This is especially true when it comes to major studio tentpoles that thrive on Rotten Tomatoes scores.… Continue reading ETERNALS

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) As Wes Anderson has developed and honed his signature style of filmmaking and story-telling, it has become increasingly apparent that the director has much love and respect for French cinema, art and pop-culture. Some of his musical choices, his desired cinematography, his use of colors, as… Continue reading THE FRENCH DISPATCH

By Mark Saldana Rating: 4 (Out of 4 Stars) My first introduction to the music of The Velvet Underground was in 1991 when a couple of their songs played in the background of Oliver Stone’s musical biopic The Doors. Back then, I was such a huge fan of the movie that I was obsessed with… Continue reading THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) After creating an incredible sequel with Blade Runner 2049, filmmaker Denis Villeneuve has taken on the challenge of adapting one of the more sucessful, iconic, and popular novels of science fiction. Upon hearing that Dune would be Villenneuve’s next project, I had little doubt that the… Continue reading DUNE