Prestigious filmmaker George P. Cosmatos director of films such as Rambo First Blood Part II, Cobra, and Tombstone have passed the torch to his son Panos Cosmatos, with two films in his filmography, Panos already gain the reputation as a horror film director.

His second film Mandy has received five stars review and also been nominated for the Spirit Awards for Best Cinematography.

Mandy tells the story of Red Miller (Nicholas Cage) a logger living with his girlfriend Mandy Bloom (Andrea Riseborough) both of them have a very obscure past. Red as a veteran and alcoholic and Mandy with childhood experiences.

One day on her way to work, Mandy bumps into a van carrying a deviant cult named Children of the New Dawn, led by Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache) is immediately strike by Mandy's beauty.

Sanders ordered the kidnap Mandy with the help of his disciples and a The Black Skull, a biker group. That's when Mandy and Red end up been kidnaped from their home. Sanders order to torture Red while he is trying to seduce Mandy, unfortunately for him Mandy humiliated him in front of his disciples. Filled with rage and revenge Sand order to burn Mandy alive in front of Red.

This is when Red's revenge won't stop until he eliminated everyone from The Children of the New Dawn.

Panos Cosmatos a bloody story or love and revenge, the film is hypnotic and beautiful. The cinematography, music, art direction and editing are outstanding.

Nancy Freeman (Andrea Riseborough) lives at home with her disabled mother Betty (Ann Dowd) in upstate New Jersey. This is one of those towns where everything seems to be in slow motion. Overcast and perpetual winter. Nancy works at a dentist mill, she regales with tales of imaginary vacations that she swears she's been, for the audience is clear that this is not the truth.

For audiences seems pretty clear that Nancy is a person with a lot of issues who constantly lives the life of others. Suddenly her mom dies, she invents the idea after watching the news about the story of a missing girl for 30 years that she is the missing girl. This brings her to the house Ellen Lynch (J Smith-Cameron) and Leo Lynch (Steve Buscemi) where she takes advantage of their need to find the missing daughter and use them for her benefit.

The film Nancy is a good approach by first-time director Christina Choe delivering an impressive movie where Andrea Riseborough plays a disturbed person who can join the list of Hollywood female psychopaths in her search of stealing people's identity and live their life too.

Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda well known for his work, as editor, screenwriter and director won the Palm d Ore at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 for the film Shoplifters.

The film tells the story of Osamu (Lily Franklin) a construction worker who lives in poverty with his wife Nobuyo (Sakura Ando) Shota (Kairi Jo) and an elderly woman Hatsue (Kirin Kiki). Osamu shoplifts store with Shota in order to survive and find enough food to eat for the rest of the family.

One day, Osamu and Nobuyo are walking thru the neighborhood when they find Yuri Hojo (Miyu Sasaki) locked in a balcony. The night is very cold, so they decided to rescue her for the night. Yuri lives with an abusive mom who doesn't take care of her.

The next day Osamu and Nobuyo decided that Yuri must stay with them because they feel she will be better with them. Yuri bonds with the family and learn how to shoplift too while at the same time the family learns on television that Yuri was reported missing and the police are looking for her.

Hirokazu Kore-eda explores with this movie some the incongruities in life. Yuri lives better with an adoptive life that are sorta social criminals who steal to survive than with her abusive mom who doesn't care about her.

Life is hard in any city of the world, however for a city like Tokyo always presented as a cosmopolitan city, to me is quite impressive to see the levels of poverty. The simplicity of this film seems to channel Yasujirō Ozu and his vision of social injustice in Japan as well as people's life seen by the eyes of spectators who want to be a fly on the wall.

Shoplifters is an eye-opening film that needs to be seen by an audience who deserve to hear stories about the struggle in Asian cities.

In 2013 a polish film won the academy award for the best foreign film, the film IDA was praised by critics as a masterpiece shot and black and white with a powerful message about religion.

Director Paweł Aleksander Pawlikowski has a career as a documentary filmmaker focusing on lyricism and irony earning a good reputation as a filmmaker.

Pawlikowski comes back with another beautiful powerful film already winning awards around the world and competing at the Academy Awards for best cinematography, best foreign film, and best director.

Cold War tells the story of Wiktor Warski (Tomasz Kot) A sophisticated conductor and musicologist traveling through Poland with his producer Irena (Agata Kulesza) finding singers and dancers forced to play into the communist propaganda machine. During auditions, Wiktor meets Zuzanna "Zula" Lichoń (Joanna Kulig) a woman with a dark past but with so much talent.

Quickly Wiktor and Zula start an intense romance during the tour around Europe, where Wiktor ask Zula to escape with him out of the communist regime in Polland, the orchestrated plan fell apart because Zula never shows up. The couple is reunited again in Paris where Wiktor now have jazz and Zula still touring for the government of Polland.

The two become attached with each other & their ongoing relationship which morphs into an angst-riddled obsession that traverses Western & Eastern Europe.

Cold War is a masterpiece, with powerful performances, especially by Joanna Kulig. The cinematography is out of this world, you can easily freeze frame the film and is a perfect picture by an artist.

Pawlikowski borrows visual from the best and greatest filmmakers of all, you can see Bergman, Tarkovsky, Bresson, Varda, and Renoir. to tells this love story so destructive, like the whole Cold War itself.

Actor Paul Dano has gained such a reputation with powerful performances in films like There Will Be Blood, Little Miss Sunshine, Swiss Army Man, Prisoners, Youth, and the BBC Miniseries War and Peace. His debut as a director is an interesting take of married life in the eyes of a kid.

Wildlife tells the story of Jeannette Brinson (Carey Mulligan) and Jerry Brinson (Jake Gyllenhaal) a family who just moved to Great Falls, Montana with their teenage son Joe (Ed Oxenbould) Joe personality is always volatile, making him unstable on most of the jobs he is in. One day he is fired from a job at a golf course at a country club. He is offered the job back due to mistakes made by his boss, refusing it out of pride. Their relationship growth tense day today. Jeannette decided to find a job as a swimming instructor to help the family and Joe started working as an assistant in a photography studio.

Great Falls, Montana is very vulnerable to fire, so Jerry finds an opportunity working as a firefighter. Jeannette argues with Jerry because he enrolls on this difficult job, for her is a life or death experience where the firefighter spent so much time away from home.

Jeannette meets Warren Miller (Bill Camp) while she is teaching him how to swim, later becoming romantically involved. Jeannette leaves alone Joe several times to spend time with Miller. Joe argues with her several times about the affair but also questioning her relationship with Jerry.

Paul Dano is a strong start. Dano makes a good film with a strong cast. Ed Oxenbould as Joe is excellent. Wildlife is a story of love and dispairs in a small town where life goes on while nature is destroyed by sometimes the human hand and rescued at the same time.

It is hard to find filmmakers with such a sensitivity to tells stories and adapt someone material with respect. But when you find one, you are impressed with the results.
James Baldwin famous activist wrote a powerful novel under the name If Beale Street Could Talk, Director Barry Jenkins after winning the Oscar for best film on one of the most controversial award shows ever, decided to make a movie about Baldwin novel.

Clementine "Tish" Rivers (Kiki Lane) have a long time friendship with Alonzo "Fonny" Hunt (Stephan James), one decided to start a romantic relationship growing every day, unexpectedly Tish is pregnant of Fonny's child. The news comes joy for Tish family, especially for her mom Shanon Rivers (Regina King) but not well received on Fonny's family, especially Mrs. Hunt. One day Tish is harassed by an Italian guy at the store, Alonzo comes to rescue her physically throwing the man out of the store, but of course, a white police office appears and is trying to find an excuse to arrest him. A few days later, the same police officer arrests him with charges of raping a woman from the neighborhood. The case is really difficult to win, do the police officer testify against Fonny.

If Beale Street Could Talk is presented in a nonlinear structure making the film so enjoyable because you witness Tish and Fonny relationship from the very beginning and at the same time you see them struggling while Alonzo is in jail, fighting for justice.

The powerful vision by Barry Jenkins gives the actors the opportunity to kind break the 4rth wall by looking at you, asking you to feel their love, their pain, and suffering. Every detail in If Beale Street Could Talk is so well put out, from music, art direction, editing, and cinematography, is like all these elements are merged perfectly and evenly. The performance of the cast as a whole and individually is groundbreaking, due chemistry, and direction. This film is a great document on how till this day, police brutality against people of color lives on without enough consequences.

In 1977 Italian director Dario Argento directed a supernatural psychological horror film which became a cult classic. Dario Argento is always been labeled as a horror film director. He has inspired some many filmmakers including the award-winning Italian director Luca Guadagnino.

Suspiria directed by Guadagnino is a different take on Argento's version.
Susanna "Susie" Bannion (Dakota Johnson) an aspiring American ballerina arrives at Berlin in 1977 for an audition at the Tanz Dance Academy. Susie is able to get accepted quickly without no formal training, later she auditioned with Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton) who is the artistic director and choreographer of the Tanz Dance Academy.

Susie's arrival comes at the same time when Patricia, a student disappears mysteriously, creating a sense of despair in some of the students and for the audience as well.

Another student, Olga accuses the matrons of the Academy for Patricia disappearance. While trying to escape, Olga gets trapped in one room without the possibility to leave. At this point, we see that there is a supernatural connection between Susie and where the Academy lives. Olga gets possed by Susie's movement in parallel scenes until Olga's body is broken by the rigorous physical movements from Susie.

The film advance into a hypnotic trip where the spiring ballerinas are practicing for the final show, Guadagnino creates a supernatural spectacle borderline into bizarre. To me, it felt like watching a European version of Black Swan where the ballerina is the hero but at the same time the enemy. Tom Yorke provided a powerful soundtrack and Tilda Swinton bring her talents to the test, plating two opposite characters (NO SPOILER HERE)

Films about racial conflicts, gentrification, and segregation are one of the most popular styles of films helping emerging directors to tells stories that mean a lot to some minorities who need a voice to be heard. Do The Right Thing, Poetic Justice, Higher Learning, Boyz in the Hood, New Jack City, and Stright Out of Compton are some of the film brought by directors like John Singleton and Spike Lee.

The new movie Blindspotting made by the Mexican Director Carlos Lopez Estrada tells the story of Collin (Daveed Diggs) a convicted felon is reaching his last three days of his probation. His longtime friend Miles (Rafael Casal) is a short-tempered guy who loves to get in trouble. Collin and Miles work at a moving company in Oakland.

One day after work Collin stop at a red light and witness the murder of a white civilian by the police. For Collin witness, this very troubling situation haunts him, especially under the circumstances he is living. Miles presence complicates things even worst because he carries a gun for protection and his erratic behavior escalate.

Blindspotting is a powerful poetic film about life in the hood and the way white policeman sees people of color, a common problem that continues without a solution on sight. The films express the daunting experience of African America who lives in the neighborhood where they don't feel safe and they are always feeling a threat around them.

Movies have a very peculiar relationship with productions about astronauts. Always conflicted, troubling and nothing to lose mentality follows the space travelers from the core mission to their conclusion.

When astronauts face their reality up there, is when they find what they are missing, characters who are reckless, adventurous, genius or perhaps risk takers.
Gravity, 2001 Space Oddisey, Armageddon, The Right Stuff, The Martian, Planet of the Apes, Red Planet, The Cosmonauts are among the films presenting these courageous people.

Director Damien Chazelle embarked in one of the most ambitious films ever. The story of how Neil Amstrong reached the moon on First Man.

Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) is an X-15 pilot facing a very difficult time because his daughter is going thru treatment for a brain tumor. Amstrong is working very hard to figure out the problem by cataloging her symptoms and feverishly, sadly she died. After the loss of his child, he signs up for project Gemini, which is the beginning of the space program to orbit around the earth. Neil, his wife Janet (Claire Foy) and their son Rick move to Houston for Gemini. This is the beginning of a hard 5 years for Amstrong, their family and the rest of the astronauts who join the program, where controversy surrounds, the death of crew members due to test in several missions, the public protesting about the miss use of federal funding to send people to space without a clear vision from NASA and the inscrutability in the information provided to family members about the health of the astronauts.

Damien Chazelle does a great job laying out his vision about the space program, the technical aspects of the film are outstanding. However, the story felt short due to a lack of constant rhythm in the script. First Man started with a great pace but then slow down, come back again, and in the most important part of the story, is to short to enjoy it.

Clair Foy plays a strong wife and mother, that when she appeared on the screen can show everyone who is charge even the chief of the astronaut office.

First Man presents a hidden message about how our current administration is promoting the famous "Space Force", a project that none knows where is going and why we need it is just another excuse to get money to protect us from something that we don't know. According to the film, the '60s people were starving and without money for their necessities but the most important thing was to send "Whitey to the Moon"

Director Yorgos Lanthimos is well known for his perverse style and approach to his movies. From Dogtooth, The Lobster, and The Killing of the Sacred Deer. Lanthimos focus on complex characters living in difficult situations with unexpected solutions.

His last two movies explore the love, grieve and revenge. Now in his new movie The Favourite he explores the complex web of power and the true nature of envy.

Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) a woman with fragile health and not interest in governing Great Britan and Scotland. Queen Anne is more interested in superficial and eccentric activities, like duck races and play with her 17 rabbits which represent the child she had lost over the years. Her confidant Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz) and also lover uses her power to influence the queen and manipulate her decisions.

Until one day Abigail Masham, Baroness Masham (Emma Stone) arrives in search for employment. Is important to mention that Sarah and Abigail are the queen's cousin. At first, Abigail works as a scullery maid in the palace. Quickly she realized that the queen is in bad shape. Abigail seeks an opportunity to gain flattering with Sarah and potentially Queen Anne by using some herbs to cure her inflamed legs, which works for the queen and help Abigail to become Lady of the bedchamber.

At this point, Sarah and Abigail fight for the queen Anna affection, quickly becoming a game of control, deceive and manipulation where England is at stake.

Lanthimos masterfully presents a well-crafted film leaning towards comedy, his previous approach leaning towards drama leave the spectators breathless, while this movie presents a challenge the audience who are impressed by unexpected visual styles, like extreme wide angle views, stunning art direction, and costume design.

Don't me wrong The Favourite is a good film, but not as powerful as The Lobster, and The Killing of the Sacred Deer who seeks less elaborated art direction and costumes and focus more in the characters. The Favourite presents nuances and visual metaphors in several scenes used as a tool to make the audience understand, however, The Favourite could be a little bizarre for audiences who are looking for a period piece with conventional storytelling style. The film has three powerful female characters who can survive in the 1700 era, the question is how queen Anne, Sarah and Abigail could do in the midst of the Metoo movement.

It is always a very recurrent subject in movies to explore the lives of writers. Depressed, conflicted, out of money, crazy, obsessed, a long list of issues that most of the time is the fuel for their work. The long list of films goes on, from Misery, Adaptation, Midnight in Paris, Manhattan, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Hours, Naked Lunch, The Shining, Ruby Sparks and The Great Beauty.

Writers are considered virtuosos but also people who have a messed up life, searching the next best-selling novel. One writer, in particular, gain success not by creating her work but by using other people's work and falsified their persona.

Writer Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) living in N.Y. and suffering from writers' block after the success of her novel Estée Lauder. Lee is one a really rough patch, dealing with financial troubles and alcoholism.

She is unable to finalize a deal to secure funding for a new biographical book she is forced to sell her personal possessions to pay the rent and make a living. One of the items she has the sell was a letter written by the actress Katherine Hepburn, unable to sell it to a good price she decided to start researching about the writer Fanny Brice and then she finds a letter from Brice folded in a book.

Lee finds inspiration in Brice to forge letters written by deceased writers, which she starts selling at a good price. The scam lasts longer than she thought but some buyers suspect when one letter suggest the sexuality of a famous writer. Her friend Jack Hock ( Richard E. Grant) a drug dealer help her to sell more letters after Lee is blacklisted by her buyers.

Marielle Heller directs a very powerful story about a writer struggles to survive in the savage this savage world where art meets lies. Melissa McCarthy finally showed me that she can perform besides comedy, without using physicality to prove she can be talented. Richard E. Grant is the perfect sidekick and supporting role. Both have a well deserved Oscar nomination.

When you hear the term Femme Fatale yo think of Rita Hayworth, Sharon Stone, Barbara Stanwyck, Lauren Bacal, and Lana Turner. These women were sophisticated characters, mysterious and seductive.

It is hard to picture really young girls playing a Femme Fatale, but after seeing the film Thoroughbreds I think is possible to label Amanda and Lily.

In a suburban Connecticut upper-class family, Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) lives with her mom Karen (Kaili Vernoff) and her stepdad Mark (Paul Sparks) a wealthy and abusive man, whom she hates.

Amanda (Olivia Cooke) been friends with Lily for years, but then grew apart after the death of Lily's dad. Amanda is a complex person who suffers from an unspecified mental disorder making her emotionless. She was also charged with animal cruelty after euthanized her crippled horse with a knife. One day Karen fixed a paid meeting between Lily and Amanda pretending to be a tutoring session, Amanda figured out it is paid very quickly. Later they meet by mutual agreement. The friendship grows back but with one single interest, Amanda proposes to Lily to kill Mark.

Cory Finley makes his directorial debut with this film, Thoroughbreds borrow from the great Alfred Hitchcock the complexity two characters planning a murder but in a young kids upper-class environment. The film is really well made, great performances and carefully directed to deliver an intense thriller. It reminds me of the early days for director Ryan Johnson and his film Brick, which is a film noir murder mystery in a high school.