Tag: coming of age
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Predator: Badlands is a brutal, inventive survival tale that reimagines the franchise through blood, betrayal, and bond.
Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator: Badlands reimagines the franchise as a brutal survival tale, with Elle Fanning delivering a dual performance that anchors a story of betrayal, adaptation, and chosen kinship. Read my full review.
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Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall:
There is a quiet ache that runs through Winter Sprung Summer or Fall, a film that moves not with urgency but with the slow pulse of memory. Directed by Tiffany Paulsen and led by Jenna Ortega’s restrained, luminous performance as Remi Aguilar, the film traces the fragile arc of a relationship born in transit and…
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I Like Movies: Clerks Jr. with Feelings: A Love Letter to VHS and Awkward Youth
Put on your finest trench coat and prep your Tarantino references, because I Like Movies just hit Netflix, and if you’ve ever felt personally victimized by your own Letterboxd reviews, this one might hit you like a Criterion Collection to the face. Chandler Levack’s indie charmer (with a side of heartbreak) doesn’t reinvent the coming-of-age…
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The Karate Kid: Legends- Wax On, Wax Off… Again?
The Karate Kid franchise has thrived on the underdog narrative, the poetic symmetry of a well-placed roundhouse kick, and the wisdom of a mentor who speaks in riddles. *Karate Kid: Legends* attempts to honor this tradition while stitching together two disparate branches of the Miyagi-verse—Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso and Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han—into one cohesive…
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Jazzy: A Quiet Song of Loss and Becoming
Some stories don’t announce themselves. They slip in like a familiar melody, threading through the air, settling into the spaces between words. *Jazzy* is one of those stories—a film that doesn’t demand attention but earns it, unfolding with the quiet ache of memory, the weight of growing up, the bittersweet pull of change. Morissa Maltz…
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Here: Messing Up History and the Human Timeline
Movie Info: Reuniting the director, writer and stars of Forrest Gump, Here is an original film about multiple families and a special place they inhabit. The story travels through generations, capturing the most relatable of human experiences. Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Castaway, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Contact, Back to the Future) directs from a screenplay by…
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Sundance 2025: DJ Ahmet: A Symphony of Youth, Tradition, and Forbidden Love
MOVIE INFO: Ahmet, a 15-year-old boy from a remote Yuruk village in North Macedonia, finds refuge in music while navigating his father’s expectations, a conservative community, and his first experience with love — a girl already promised to someone else. BREVIEW: “DJ Ahmet,” directed by Georgi M. Unkovski, is a captivating drama that beautifully intertwines…
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Evil Does Not Exist: A Thought Provoking Near Masterpiece
MOVIE INFO: In the rural alpine hamlet of Mizubiki, not far from Tokyo, Takumi and his daughter, Hana, lead a modest life gathering water, wood, and wild wasabi for the local udon restaurant. Increasingly, the townsfolk become aware of a talent agency’s plan to build an opulent glamping site nearby, offering city residents a comfortable…
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Janet Planet: A Poetic Exploration of Mother-Daughter Bonds
MOVIE INFO: In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother, Janet. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker captures a child’s experience of time passing, and the ineffability of a daughter falling out of love with her mother, in this singularly…
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Rez Ball: A Heartfelt Journey Through Navajo Basketball Dreams”
MOVIE INFO: In the heart of Chuska, New Mexico, the Chuska Warriors, a high school basketball team rich in Native American heritage, face their greatest challenge. After the loss of their star player, the team must unite like never before to keep their dreams of a state championship alive. This is more than just a…
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North of Normal: Living through Bad Parenting
MOVIE INFO: NORTH OF NORMAL follows writer Cea Sunrise Person’s unconventional childhood in the wilderness, her complicated relationship with her perpetually pot-smoking teen mom, and her incredible path to a version of normalcy. REVIEW: The Hippie movement gets an even handed judgement through both childhood and young adult eyes in Carly’s Stone film adaptation of…