Blog — 3 Brothers Film

Review: Night Nurse (1931)

Night Nurse starring Barbara Stanwyck is a reminder of the salacious storytelling of pre-Code Hollywood.

Aren's Reviews, Overlooked and Under-Appreciated, ReviewsAren BergstromFebruary 13, 2024Night Nurse, William A. Wellman, Oliver H.P. Garrett, Charles Kenyon, Dora Macy, Barbara Stanwyck, Ben Lyon, Joan Blondell, Clark Gable, pre-CodeComment

Review: American Fiction (2023)

Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction strikes a delicate balance between hilarious satire and understated family drama.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Current: In TheatresAren BergstromFebruary 7, 2024American Fiction, Cord Jefferson, Erasure, Percival Everett, Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Issa Rae, Sterling K. BrownComment

Review: Seven Veils (2023)

Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils is a vital, messy piece of self-expression from the Canadian auteur.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Current: In TheatresAren BergstromJanuary 29, 2024Seven Veils, Salome, Atom Egoyan, Amanda Seyfried, Rebecca Liddiard, Douglas Smith, Mark O'Brien, Vinessa Antoine, TIFFComment

Review: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023)

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is decent entertainment, but a significant step down from the original film.

Review: Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One works as a compelling postwar drama as well as an exciting kaiju picture.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Current: In TheatresAren BergstromJanuary 5, 2024Godzilla, Godzilla Minus One, Takashi Yamazaki, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, Kuranosuke Sakai, TohoComment

Review: The Boy and the Heron (2023)

The Boy and the Heron, Hayao Miyazaki’s latest masterpiece, beautifully poses the question of how do you live in a broken world?

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Current: In TheatresAren BergstromDecember 29, 2023The Boy and the Heron, Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki, animationComment

Christmas: Elf (2003)

Jon Favreau’s Elf still remains the 21st-century’s most iconic Christmas classic.

Review: The Equalizer 3 (2023)

The Equalizer 3 blends together a brutal action film and a sentimental Hallmark-style drama about Italian village life.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Current: At HomeAren BergstromDecember 22, 2023The Equalizer 3, The Equalizer, Antoine Fuqua, Richard Wenk, Michael Sloan, Richard Lindheim, Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Eugenio Mastrandrea, David DenmanComment

Review: Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)

Irvin Kershner’s Eyes of Laura Mars has the thematic and narrative obsessions of giallo without the style.

Aren's Reviews, Flash Back, ReviewsAren BergstromDecember 13, 2023Eyes of Laura Mars, Irvin Kershner, John Carpenter, David Zelag Goodman, Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones, René Auberjonois, Brad Dourif, Raoul JuliaComment

Christmas: The Holdovers (2023)

The Holdovers is something of a Christmas miracle: an Alexander Payne movie that doesn’t have contempt for its characters.

Aren's Reviews, Christmas, Reviews, The Current: In TheatresAren BergstromDecember 1, 2023The Holdovers, Alexander Payne, David Hemingson, Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa, Carrie Preston, Christmas Comments

Review: Air (2023)

Ben Affleck’s Air is an easygoing underdog sports drama without the sports.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Current: At HomeAren BergstromNovember 27, 2023Air, Nike, Air Jordan, Michael Jordan, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, Marlon Wayans, Chris Messina, Chris Tucker, Viola DavisComment

Halloween Horror: Doctor X (1932)

Michael Curtiz’s Doctor X demonstrates the perverse strangeness of pre-Code horror.

Aren's Reviews, Halloween Horror, Overlooked and Under-Appreciated, ReviewsAren BergstromNovember 13, 2023Doctor X, Halloween Horror, pre-Code horror, Michael Curtiz, Robert Tasker, Earl Baldwin, Terror, Howard W. Comstock, Fay Wray, Lee Tracy, Preston Foster, Lionel AtwillComment

Review: The Creator (2023)

Gareth Edwards’ The Creator borrows liberally from other, better films, but it’s strikingly relevant in our present moment.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Current: In TheatresAren BergstromNovember 9, 2023The Creator, Gareth Edwards, Chris Weitz, John David Washington, Madeleine Yuna Voyles, Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe, Sturgill Simpsons, Allison JanneyComment

Halloween Horror: Freaks (1932)

Tod Browning’s Freaks is an icon of pre-Code horror and a great drama about the lives of circus performers.

Halloween Horror: The Witches (1990)

The Witches remains a notable blend of horror and adventure for kids, and the most surprising movie of Nicolas Roeg’s career.

Review: Unknown: Cave of Bones (2023)

Unknown: Cave of Bones, the Netflix documentary about the Rising Star cave system, is often affecting, but overreaches on some of its scientific claims.

Aren's Reviews, The Current: At Home, ReviewsAren BergstromOctober 3, 2023Unknown, Cave of Bones, Unknown: Cave of Bones, Netflix, Mark Mannucci, Rising Star cave system, Lee Burger, homo nalediComment

TIFF23: Snow Leopard

The late Pema Tseden’s Snow Leopard is a beautiful drama that captures the mysterious power of the Tibetan plateau.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Festival CircuitAren BergstromSeptember 20, 2023Snow Leopard, Tibet, China, Pema Tseden, Jinpa, Tseten Tashi, Xiong Ziqi, Losang Choepei, Genden Phuntsok, TIFF23, Toronto International Film FestivalComment

TIFF23: Wildcat

Ethan Hawke’s Wildcat examines the life and work of Flannery O’Connor in unconventional, passionate fashion.

TIFF23: Mandoob

Ali Kalthami’s Mandoob is a strong debut that recalls classic film noirs in its exploration of one pathetic man’s increasingly bad decision making.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Festival CircuitAren BergstromSeptember 12, 2023TIFF23, Toronto International Film Festival, Mandoob, Ali Kalthami, Mohammed Algarawi, Mohammed Aldokhi, Hajar Alshammari, Mohammed Alttowayan, Sarah Taibah, Saudi ArabiaComment

Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)

Dead Man’s Chest is the best film in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, a big, fun, rollicking adventure.