Blog — 3 Brothers Film

Hot Docs 2023: Money, Freedom, a Story of CFA Franc

Kay Lena Ndiaye’s documentary on the CFA franc is handsomely mounted, but lacks specificity and a clear thesis.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Festival CircuitAren BergstromMay 1, 2023Hot Docs, Hot Docs 2023, Money Freedom a Story of CFA Franc, CFA Franc, Kay Lena Ndiaye, documentaryComment

Hot Docs 2023: Total Trust

Zhang Jialing’s Total Trust is a claustrophobic, challenging portrait of life under the totalizing Chinese surveillance apparatus.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Festival CircuitAren BergstromApril 30, 2023Total Trust, Chinese, CCP, Chinese Communist Party, surveillance, Zhang Jialing, Hot Docs, Hot Docs 2023Comment

Hot Docs 2023: Scala

Ananta Thitanat’s slow cinema documentary on the dismantling of the Scala theatre in Bangkok plays like a non-fiction version of Tsai Ming-liang’s Goodbye, Dragon Inn.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Festival CircuitAren BergstromApril 29, 2023Scala, Thailand, Bangkok, Ananta Thitanat, documentary, Hot Docs 2023, Hot DocsComment

Hot Docs 2023: Satan Wants You

Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor’s Satan Wants You presents the origin story of the Satanic Panic as a slick true crime thriller.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Festival CircuitAren BergstromApril 29, 2023Satan Wants You, Hot Docs, Hot Docs 2023, Steve J. Adams, Sean Horlor, Michelle Remembers, Satanic PanicComment

Hot Docs 2023: Undertaker for Life!

Georges Hannan’s Undertaker for Life! attempts to lift the veil on the world of morticians, but refuses to engage with the visceral discomfort of death.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Festival CircuitAren BergstromApril 28, 2023Hot Docs, Hot Docs 2023, Undertaker of Life!, Georges Hannan, documentaryComment

Table Talk: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

Anders and Aren discuss how Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves succeeds as light entertainment, as well as a Hollywood comedy and a fantasy film.

RoundtablesAren BergstromApril 24, 2023Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D movie, Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Michael Gilio, Chris McKay, Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Rege-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Hugh GrantComment

Review: How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022)

Daniel Goldhaber’s adaptation of the nonfiction book, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, works well as both a taut procedural drama and a work of moral-political questioning.

Reviews, The Current: In TheatresAnders BergstromApril 21, 2023How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Daniel Goldhaber, drama, heist, environment, politics, adaptationComment

Review: John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

John Wick: Chapter 4 is as much endurance test as action epic, but it still delivers the excellent action choreography we expect of the series.

Review: Sudden Impact (1983)

Clint Eastwood’s Sudden Impact, the fourth Dirty Harry picture, combines the rape-revenge film with the reactionary cop picture to fascinating results.

Aren's Reviews, Overlooked and Under-Appreciated, ReviewsAren BergstromMarch 31, 2023Sudden Impact, Clint Eastwood, Joseph Stinson, Earl E. Smith, Charles B. Pierce, Harry Julian Fink, R.M. Fink, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, Bradford Dillman, Paul Drake, Michael Maurer, Albert Popwell, Audrie J. NeenanComment

Review: I Like Movies (2023)

Chander Levack’s I Like Movies is a coming-of-age film that relies on the specificity of its character and setting to compensate for its conventional narrative.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Current: In TheatresAren BergstromMarch 23, 2023I Like Movies, Chandler Levack, Isaiah Lehtinen, Romina D'Ugo, Krista Bridges, Percy Hynes White, Canadian filmComment

Review: Return to Seoul (2022)

Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul is an intimate examination of a troubled young woman.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Current: In TheatresAren BergstromMarch 17, 2023Return to Seoul, Davy Chou, Oh Kwang-rok, Guka Han, Kim Sun-young, Yoann Zimmer, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Cho woo-Choi, Park Ji-minComment

Predicting the 2023 Oscars

Breaking down who will win and who should win for all 24 categories at the 2023 Oscars.

Review: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania may be a departure for the series of films about the shrinking superheroes, but it embraces the all-ages pulp origins of the comics.

Reviews, The Current: In TheatresAnders BergstromMarch 9, 2023Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, Peyton Reed, superheroes, Kang, Jonathan Majors, Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Michelle PfeifferComment

Review: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is Frank Capra’s great American political folktale.

Reviews, Flash BackAnton BergstromMarch 7, 2023Jimmy Stewart, Frank Capra, American politics, Sidney Buchman, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Guy Kibbee, Thomas Mitchell, Astrid Allwyn, comedy, drama, US Senate, idealism, cynicismComment

Review: Creed III (2023)

Michael B. Jordan’s Creed III is another examination of what makes a man in a cinematic culture that’s hardly interested in the question.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Current: In TheatresAren BergstromMarch 3, 2023Michael B. Jordan, Keenan Coogler, Zach Baylin, Ryan Coogler, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors, Wood Harris, Florian Munteanu, Phylicia RashadComment

Review: Infinity Pool (2023)

Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool is a transgressive work of body horror that provides a moral critique of the elite through its shocking content.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Current: In TheatresAren BergstromFebruary 23, 2023Infinity Pool, Brandon Cronenberg, Alexander Skarsgard, Mia Goth, Cleopatra Coleman, Jalil Lespert, Amanda Brugel, John Ralston, Jeffrey Ricketts, Caroline Boulton, Thomas KretschmannComment

Review: White Noise (2022)

Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of the landmark postmodern novel by Don DeLillo fails to deliver despite the enduring relevance of the novel’s subjects and themes.