Category: MAIN

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) For Billie Eilish, the title of this documentary/concert film is most definitely an appropriate title, given her meteroric rise to fame. As RJ Cutler’s film reveals, the still teenage Billie has been living in a very blur of fame, fortune, and critical acclaim. This experience is… Continue reading BILLIE EILISH: THE WORLD’S A LITTLE BLURRY

By Mark Saldana Under normal circumstances, in a non-pandemic world, I would have already written and posted this end-of-year review and would have already moved on and focused on the films this year has to offer. Most of the major film awards would’ve already taken place, but just like everything else in 2020, accolades and… Continue reading Mark’s Best of 2020

By Mark Saldana Rating: 4 (Out of 4 Stars) The American dream is a goal that not only natural-born citizens of the United States hope to accomplish, but is often, more importantly, a goal that immigrants hope to achieve. That is the main message of this beautiful and heartfelt movie about South Korean immigrants trying… Continue reading MINARI

By Mark Saldana Rating: 4 (Out of 4 Stars) Based on the true story of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton and the infiltration of the Chicago chapter of the party by FBI informant William O’Neal, writer/director Shaka King presents an all-too-real and dual-faceted example of our US government’s oppression of Black America. Out-spoken and unfiltered,… Continue reading JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3 (Out of 4 Stars) Based on Mohamedou Ould Salahi’s memoir Guantanamo Diary, this film adaptation by director Kevin Macdonald does manage to deliver an emotional wallop, but gets undermined by a mostly dull, legal procedural approach to the material. The movie follows the legal defense and their investigation into the… Continue reading THE MAURITANIAN

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) Barb and Star initially seems like an SNL sketch idea that never made it to the show and seems destined for failure in a feature treatment. Going into this movie, I tempered my expectations accordingly, but was ultimately pleasantly surprised with the delightful comedic results that… Continue reading BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3 (Out of 4 Stars) The idea of making another time loop movie actually is rather amusing if one were to think about it. In a time loop plot, a character or characters often repeat a day or a certain chain of events, sometimes with different outcomes, only to start over… Continue reading THE MAP OF TINY PERFECT THINGS

By Laurie Coker Rating: D+ Rarely does a film host six directors. But Hopeless Romantic, a film about treading through the ups and downs of romance does.  Directed by a group of women from the East Coast of Canada, Deanne Foley, Martine Blue, Stephanie Clattenburg, Latonia Hartery, Ruth Lawrence, and Megan Wennberg, Hopeless Romantic has… Continue reading HOPELESS ROMANTIC

By Laurie Coker Rating: A An exceptional cast can make almost any movie good, but when given a remarkable and timely story in which to play, the result can be near perfection. Such is the case with Judas and the Black Messiah, a Vietnam Era biopic that shines a glaring light on racial issues as… Continue reading JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH