By Nick Maylor The best film of the year (perhaps the decade), Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman (2019) was adapted from Charles Brandt’s book I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran and Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa. The book has been analyzed and criticized for those who claim that Frank Sheeran’s first-hand accounts…
By Nick Maylor The fourth episode of the Disney+ original The Mandalorian (titled “Sanctuary”) is directed by Bryce Dallas Howard and continues the story of the titular Mandalorian after he has rescued the child AKA (but not actually) “Baby Yoda” and searches for a planet where the two can stay under the radar from the…
By Nick Maylor (***) Netflix is going to be a major contender at next year’s Academy Awards with The Irishman, Marriage Story, and Dolemite is My Name being just a few of the studio’s major releases this year. Another film that is gaining significant praise (particularly for the performances of its two leads) is The…
By Nick Maylor (****) Getting one’s hopes up in anticipation of a film release can be dangerous. Building the hype too much can make the experience of finally viewing the film underwhelming. Despite my devoted and pure love of all things geeky, Avengers: Endgame (2019) only made it to the second spot on my list…
By Nick Maylor Everyone is talking about “Baby Yoda” The internet showed me photos of Baby Yoda… Baby Yoda is the reason I started my free trial of Disney+ last night. Not the multitude of Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars content, just Baby Yoda. The Mandalorian is a space western Disney+ series set in…
By Nick Maylor I’m not a huge fan of making these big lists. Ranking stuff, in general, is tricky. Many films are simply “apples” that often get compared with “oranges”. The Marvel Cinematic Universe features so many films that span several genres. The first two decades of this century have seen a cinema that is…
By Nick Maylor (***) Following the plot/timeline of any of the Terminator films is tricky. The time-travel and pre/post-apocalyptic plot elements don’t make for a simple narrative structure. The 4th and 5th installments of the franchise each ignored (in part or completely) one or more of the films that preceded it and Tim Miller’s Terminator:…
By Nick Maylor Kevin Smith took a brief sabbatical from filmmaking after the perceived failure of Zack & Miri Make a Porno (2008), a film that saw the worst box office opening for star Seth Rogen. With Zack & Miri, Smith was clearly trying to make a film that would play to a certain type…
By Nick Maylor Since Ridley Scott’s original Alien (1979), “synthetic” characters (androids/robots) have been a tradition in the franchise, starting with Ian Holm’s character Ash. In Aliens (1986), it was Bishop (Lance Henriksen) and so on. These characters are seen as virtually (if not totally) indistinguishable from humans. In Prometheus (2012), Ridley Scott sought to…
By Nick Maylor This Halloween, we here at Foote & Friends on Film will each be taking a look at a specific horror sub-genre, highlighting films that exemplify the best each genre has to offer. Alan’s article came first where he took a look at movies featuring witches. John then explored werewolves. For my piece,…