Review: "The Super Mario Bros" is a Fun, Candy-Colored Confection

By Christopher James

Is the Nintendo world the most untapped piece of IP? Mario, Luigi and the rest of the crew have dominated video game culture for over 40 years. Yet, a theatrical feature film has not been attempted since the ill-fated 1993 campfest starring Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper. Gone are the steampunk influences and live action hamminess. Universal’s new foray into the mushroom kingdom is a bright, glossy and impressive animated tale that bears appropriate semblance to the game, while also having the zany plushness of an Illumination tale...

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Doc Corner: Steven Yeun Narrates 'Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV'

By Glenn Charlie Dunks

Let’s be honest. Artist bio-docs are a dime a dozen. Many artists have received the treatment, even though documentary is (almost as if entirely by the medium’s nature) a not particularly good artform of its own within which to interrogate the life of somebody like Nam June Paik. Despite video being so integral to his work, much of its impact inevitably comes from being able to see his work flicker in front of your face rather than on the TV screen. Screens within screens.

For that reason I suspect Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV would be really great to see theatrically. Where the kaleidoscopic colours and swirling digital artistry could be brought to life in as immersive a way as they probably possibly could beyond seeing them in the technological flesh.

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Quick Takes on Threequels: Ant-Man & Magic Mike

by Nathaniel R

Paul Rudd vs Jonathan Majors in "Quantumania"

Forever behind, always catching up. Herewith two spontaneous reviews of threequels that came out during Oscar madness that we never got around to talking about (as they weren't related to that all-consuming golden season): Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Steven Soderbergh's trilogy-closing Magic Mike's Last Dance...

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SXSW: Kiersey Clemons captivates in ‘The Young Wife’

by Abe Friedtanzer

Kiersey Clemons is a superb talent who has proven her ability in films like Hearts Beat Loud and Asking for It. She is once again magnetic in writer-director Tayarisha Poe’s follow-up to Selah and the Spades as a bride that no one seems to truly notice or care about being happy. The Young Wife isn’t nearly as depressing or foreboding as another miserable wedding movie, Melancholia, but there’s still a sense something could go seriously wrong at any moment, and only its title character would notice.

Onscreen text invites audiences to the party - it’s not a wedding - of Celestina (Clemons) and River (Leon Bridges). A horde of people descend on Celestina’s home, each arriving with their own energy and distinctly ignoring the vibe she’d like to have on her big day...

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Streaming: Keira Knightley in "The Boston Strangler"

by Matt St Clair

Dynamic of an actress as she may be, Keira Knightley remains quite stuck in the past. As she brilliantly makes each role she plays her own, she consistently transports us into different time periods whether it’s WWII (Atonement, The Aftermath), 5th century AD (King Arthur), or 18th century England (The Duchess). This time around, Knightley is taken to the early 1960s in Boston Strangler, the new journalism crime drama written and directed by Matt Ruskin (Crown Heights)... 

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