The success of Top Gun: Maverick is like something we have not seen in the cinematic landscape in many years. It is universally beloved. Critics and fans, cinephiles and casual moviegoers, young and old, rural and urban — practically everyone in the world adores Tom Cruise’s latest go-for-broke spectacle. Now more than two months since […]
Read More Top Gun: Maverick is truly specialMy initial reaction as the credits rolled on Jordan Peele’s third feature film, Nope, was that I wished the extraordinarily talented writer, director, and producer would return to a smaller scale of filmmaking and storytelling along the lines of his 2017 debut, Get Out. However, as I have continued to reflect upon the experience of […]
Read More Jordan Peele’s Nope displays the power and importance of original storytellingRight off the bat, I just have to say that anytime you have screaming goats in a movie, I’m inclined to rave about it. As far as Thor: Love and Thunder as a whole, I feel like Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth are cinematic soulmates. The character of Thor was perfectly fine in his first […]
Read More Thor: Love and Thunder has screaming goats, which is greatThe Run-Down on Movies manager Thomas Manning recently interviewed cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo about his work on the Marvel Studios series Moon Knight. Over the course of this 20-minute conversation, Palermo speaks about the challenges of working with a visual style that relies so heavily on reflections, the on-location filming in Budapest, and capturing Oscar […]
Read More Interview with cinematographer Andrew Droz palermo – Moon KnightAt this point in 2021, it is not necessary to be a fan of comic books or even movies in general to have a surface level familiarity with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). With a total of 24 films across 13 years grossing nearly $23 billion at the worldwide box office, this franchise has become […]
Read More Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – ReviewThe Akira Kurosawa double-feature of Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962) sees Kurosawa scaling back the scope of his previous samurai features like Seven Samurai (1954) and The Hidden Fortress (1958) for a more concentrated focus on one warrior’s interactions with small towns, rival gangs, juvenile samurai pupils, and political warfare. In Yojimbo and Sanjuro, Toshirô […]
Read More Akira Kurosawa Series – Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962)As someone who has been a massive fan of Star Wars for longer than I have been a major cinephile and film enthusiast, whispers of Akira Kurosawa’s 1958 film The Hidden Fortress have entered the conversation many times surrounding George Lucas’ space opera. I had always heard that Kurosawa was perhaps Lucas’ biggest inspiration […]
Read More Akira Kurosawa Series – The Hidden Fortress (1958)“In life, one finds friends in the strangest of places.” This is a quote spoken by a samurai warrior in 16th-century Japan, but it rings true centuries later all over the word. An array of variables and possibilities in everyday life produce endless permutations for the different relationships you build with people. Your best friends […]
Read More Akira Kurosawa Series -Seven Samurai (1954)In this interview, Thomas Manning speaks with Bao Tran, the writer and director of the new kung fu comedy and Fantasia Film Festival selection, “The Paper Tigers.” Three Kung Fu prodigies have grown into washed-up, middle-aged men, now one kick away from pulling their hamstrings. But when their master is murdered, they must juggle their […]
Read More Bao Tran Interview – The Paper Tigers – Fantasia Film FestThe Apollo 13 mission is one of the most infamous ventures in the history of space travel. Launching on April 11, 1970, the astronaut trio of Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise set out on a lunar exploration assignment. However, a disastrous oxygen tank malfunction on April 13 forced the three men to forfeit […]
Read More Apollo 13 – 25 Years Later
The Run-Down on Movies 