Blog — 3 Brothers Film

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

Table Talk: Ahsoka (2023)

Anton and Anders debate whether the latest Disney Star Wars TV show is a success or a misfire.

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

“We are through the looking glass:” Watching Oliver Stone’s JFK (1991) in the Information Age

60 years after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Oliver Stone’s JFK captures how essential conspiracy is to modern life,

Essays, (Re)Viewing the CanonAnders BergstromNovember 22, 2023JFK, JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, Oliver Stone, Kevin Costner, Donald Sutherland, drama, conspiracy theory, thriller, mystery, Internet, American politics Comments

Justified: City Primeval (2023) Can't Quite Fit the Old-School Marshal in 21st-Century Detroit

Justified: City Primeval demonstrates that in 2023 we cannot have a cop show as fast and loose as the original.

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

Roundtable: Halloween Horror: Island of Lost Souls (1932)

The Brothers discuss Erle C. Kenton’s pre-Code horror adaptation of H. G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau.

Halloween Horror: Ranking the Films of the Final Destination Series

Anders ranks the films of the Final Destination series, one of the first horror franchises of the twenty-first century.

Halloween Horror, FeaturesAnders BergstromOctober 31, 2023Halloween Horror, horror, slasher, Final Destination, Devon Sawa, Ali LarterComment

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 Haunted Mansion (2003)

Eddie Murphy’s The Haunted Mansion is an effective spooky movie for children and families.

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.

Halloween Horror: The Fall of the House of Usher (1960)

Even more than Poe’s story, Corman’s version highlights familiar features of the Gothic.

Reviews, Halloween HorrorAnton BergstromOctober 6, 2023Roger Corman, The Fall of the House of Usher, horror, Halloween Horror, Vincent Price, Mark Damon, Myrna Fahey, Harry Ellerbe, Gothic, Gothic horror, Edgar Allan Poe, Richard MathesonComment

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

The Images and the Darkness: Why Sound of Freedom (2023) Is a Focused, Sophisticated Message Movie

With restraint, focus, and power, Sound of Freedom exposes the demand and supply sides of child trafficking.

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: At World's End (2007)

The third Pirates film threatens to spin out of control, but such an eccentric vision of a dark and whimsical fantasy world has rarely been as vividly imagined on screen.

Overlooked and Under-Appreciated, ReviewsAnders BergstromSeptember 8, 2023Disney, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Gore Verbinski, Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Chow Yun-fat, pirates, adventure, fantasyComment