Category Archives: Review

Flashback Flicks – Django: Unchained 10 Years Later

Shot of Django from the movie
Property of The Weinstein Company

It’s been ten years since Quentin Tarantino’s first western film, Django: Unchained. The film is the second “reboot” in name only that he’s done, the first being Inglourious Basterds. The original Django, released in 1966, is a shining example of the Spaghetti Western that became iconic in the Dollars trilogy by Sergio Leone. Continue reading Flashback Flicks – Django: Unchained 10 Years Later

The Menu: A Six Course Meal of Satire and Gore

Ralph Fiennes in The Menu

The Menu is a refreshing satire that never takes itself seriously. It follows Anya-Taylor Joy’s Margo as she is unknowingly reeled into a world that she doesn’t belong to. Margo meets various personalities at a restaurant on a private island run by the esteemed head chef, Slowik (Ralph Fiennes), who has an agenda for his privileged guests that goes beyond just serving quality food—a plan that goes awry upon Margo’s unexpected arrival.

Continue reading The Menu: A Six Course Meal of Satire and Gore

Back in Feckin’ Business with Martin McDonagh’s Banshees

Having never seen any one of Martin McDonagh’s movies, I went into The Banshees of Inisherin with an open mind. I had always heard that his previous films were thrilling and fun (like In Bruges) or serious and dramatic (cue Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) but even with no expectations of what was to come, I was still surprised to be leaving the theater feeling sadness, grief, and regret.

Continue reading Back in Feckin’ Business with Martin McDonagh’s Banshees

GEMS 2022 Mini-Festival Dispatch

Miami Film Festival’s GEMS 2022 has just wrapped at Miami’s Tower Theater. The fall mini-festival is a one-week precursor to the Miami Film Festival (MIFF) that takes place in March. The festival started in 2014 as MIFFecito, but rebranded the following year as GEMS Film Festival. GEMS is advertised as presenting “the jewels of the fall season” with the “biggest awards contenders of the year” according to the director of programming at GEMS, Lauren Cohen. This year, the Tower Theater’s contract with the city has been terminated so although the festival’s future is uncertain the people there seem hopeful that it will not be the last. FIU Film Studies interns Kevin de los Cuetos and Tatiana Nunez were lucky enough to watch a few of the films played at GEMS this past week. Here are the highlights of what they saw: Continue reading GEMS 2022 Mini-Festival Dispatch