Tinseltown Reviews

Mission: Impossible - Fallout  is a 2018 action spy film written, produced, and directed by Christopher McQuarrie (the director of Rogue Nation , making him the first to direct more than one M:I  movie) and starring Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Alec Baldwin, and Angela Bassett. The film follows IMF agent Ethan Hunt and his team as they track down stolen plutonium after a mission gone wrong. Monitored by untrusting CIA agent August Walker, the team must recover the plutonium in order to prevent a terrorist group known as the Apostles from exploding some extremely dangerous nuclear bombs. The term "apotheosis" is defined as the perfect form or example of something, the absolute culmination of being, and it's this term that I feel best describes  Mission: Impossible - Fallout . No, it's not some incredibly artistic masterpiece that will change the way you view the world, and it's no contender for Best Pi...

Hereditary is a 2018 supernatural horror film written and directed by Ari Aster in his feature directorial debut. The film stars Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro,  Gabriel Byrne , and  Ann Dowd, and tells the story of the Graham family following the death of their grandmother. The family slowly crumbles apart as each member struggles in their own way to cope with a family tragedy while also dealing with what may or may not be a supernatural haunting. The film first premiered on January 21, 2018 at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, receiving a high amount of critical acclaim, with several critics comparing it to the likes of The Shining  and The Exorcist --the two films that basically defined the horror genre--and while I hesitate to say that Hereditary  reaches their level, it definitely comes close. Unlike most horror movies, it is a very well made film and a truly powerful experience that haunted me long after watching it. Hereditary 's trailer imm...

The Shape of Water is a 2017 science-fiction romantic drama film directed and written by Guillermo del Toro, starring Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones, Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Richard Jenkins. The movie follows Elisa Esposito, a mute janitor working at a secret government facility set in Cold War-era Baltimore, where she meets, befriends, and ultimately falls in love with a humanoid amphibian creature that had been recently captured by the U.S. government. "When he looks at me, he does not know what I lack, or how I am incomplete. He sees me for what I am, as I am." So begins one of the strangest, and yet most endearing, love stories in modern cinema. But what elevates this film from simple love story to timeless classic isn't its weird "fish sex" romance, but the themes that resonate through every character present. The Shape of Water is a story about incomplete people--people who feel unfulfilled with their lives because the...

War for the Planet of the Apes  is the last installment in the Apes  trilogy, directed by Matt Reeves and starring Andy Serkis as Caesar, Woody Harrelson, Karin Konoval, Terry Notary, Steve Zahn, and Amiah Miller. The film follows Caesar as he hunts down the Colonel--the leader of a paramilitary army called Alpha Omega--in order to finally end the conflict between humans and apes for freedom, for family, and for the planet. Ever since Rise  was released in 2011, this trilogy has been my favorite on-going movie franchise, and it's a bittersweet feeling to see it end. 2011's  Rise  gave us a surprisingly good reboot of a 40-year old movie franchise that had a lot of heart. 2014's  Dawn was nearly a masterpiece, giving us a beautiful tale that questions humanity, society, and the nature of good and evil with one of the greatest villains in recent cinematic history. Now, 2017 gives us War , which delivers on a fantastic conclusion to what will go down a...

Baby Driver  is an action comedy written and directed by Edgar Wright (of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World  fame) and starring Ansel Elgort (of The Fault in Our Stars  kind-of fame) as the lead character Baby. The movie follows his job as a getaway driver working for Doc (Kevin Spacey) and slowly tries to get out of his life of crime. For those not familiar to Edgar Wright's work, he tends to focus more on style over story, which definitely shows in his works. Baby Driver  is no different, and while its story isn't bland, it's quite generic and that's okay. What makes this movie so good is not what you're watching, but how much FUN you have while watching it. Every shot comes with a purpose and every scene is filmed so precisely that this movie--stylistically--becomes a work of art. And not the type of artsy film that makes no sense but pretentious people will claim was perfection, but the type of art that grabs you by the shoulders and flings you into its wonderfully...