After helming the somber civil rights drama Selma and the harrowing prison documentary 13th, Ava DuVernay is shifting gears in a big way, making the leap to tentpole studio…
Author: Brent Hankins
Brent Hankins
Brent Hankins has been blogging and writing film reviews online since 2011. He joined the Phoenix Film Critics Society in 2013, and was a founding member of the Phoenix Critics Circle the following year, where he currently serves as President. Brent also hosted the weekly Drinks and Discourse podcast for nearly 5 years, and is currently the editor-in-chief at The Lamplight Review. He resides in Tempe, AZ with his wife and son.
The first Marvel film headlined by a black superhero is a remarkably entertaining superhero origin story. The home video release looks and sounds superb, but the extras are a bit underwhelming.
Avengers: Infinity War is already burning up the box office, but before anyone – even the heroes themselves – had seen a completed version, the cast…
Sixteen years after the Vermont Highway Patrol first endeared themselves to comedy fans and stoners across the globe, the Super Troopers are finally returning to the…
To say that Rampage is based upon the 1980s arcade machine of the same name would be accurate – the film does feature enormous mutant creatures…
On its face, the premise of Blockers is troubling: upon discovering their teenage daughters have entered into a pact to lose their virginity on prom night,…
Before Ready Player One was first published in 2011, the film rights to Ernest Cline’s geek-themed fantasy epic had already been purchased by Warner Bros. -…
So far, the plot of Deadpool 2 has been kept mostly under wraps (unless you’re inclined to believe the absurd synopsis released by the studio), but…
“Romance is dead,” proclaims Blake Conway (Jessica Barden), a college senior and aspiring journalist who writes an anonymous romance column for the school’s paper. While committed…
Wobble Palace, premiering at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival, is one of the most uncomfortable films I’ve ever sat through, an examination of a toxic relationship…
Anguished screams can be heard emanating from the basement of a slaughterhouse in a small Finnish village, but it’s not the resident reindeer that are crying…
When we first meet Sidney Hall (Logan Lerman), he’s standing at the front of his English class, reciting an essay on the meaning of life, which…
As Netflix continues to expand its library of original content, the streaming network’s executive team seems uniquely focused on attracting top-tier Hollywood talent, oftentimes at the…
Coco is one of Pixar’s most original and inspiring projects in years, and this fully loaded Blu-ray is yet another example of Disney delivering the goods and setting the bar for home video releases. If you missed this one in theaters, rest assured that it will look and sound amazing in your living room.
Despite the overwhelming success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (a collective gross of more than $5 billion domestically), the studio has oft been criticized for a…
Ryan Reynolds is bringing his foul-mouthed mutant mercenary back to the big screen in just a few shorts months, and the Deadpool 2 marketing campaign is…
The Phoenix Critics Circle proudly announces nominees for its annual awards. Members have narrowed the films from 2017 to the top nominees in each category. Guillermo…
Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk provided audiences with a gripping look at one of the most harrowing moments of World War II, told from the perspective of those…
Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space is often regarded as the worst film in the history of cinema, but if you set out on a…
Even since the first Avengers film (and arguably, even before that), the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been building toward a showdown between the Earth’s mightiest heroes…
Pixar’s 19th animated feature starts from a familiar place, centered around a young boy named Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) with only one passion: to become a great…
On a lonely stretch of road in the Midwest, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) drives a beat-up station wagon past a trio of dilapidated billboards less than…
It’s been 43 years since the release of Sidney Lumet’s star-studded adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express – not to mention more than 80 years…
“The only exciting thing about 2002 is that it’s a palindrome,” bemoans Christine McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), a high school senior at an all-girls Catholic school gazing…
Of the various franchises which make up the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Thor series was probably the top candidate for a new vision, and What We…
Opening with images of a still-beating heart and blood-stained surgical scrubs before cutting abruptly to a conversation in which two hospital employees discuss the merits of…
On the surface, Goodbye Christopher Robin – about author A.A. Milne’s creation of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories which would become a worldwide phenomenon – appears to share…
Before he became the first African-American to serve on the Supreme Court, and before he successfully argued a landmark civil rights case in Brown v. Board of…
With a long-overdue big screen adventure for Wonder Woman generating huge box office returns earlier this summer, casual fans who find themselves curious about the superheroine’s…
In an age where Hollywood seems hell-bent on remaking, rebooting and sequelizing nearly every property with a recognizable name, Denis Villeneuve’s stunning Blade Runner 2049 sets…
One of the most important tennis matches in history – and one of the sport’s most iconic and influential figures – finally gets the big screen…
Kingsman: The Golden Circle is the second movie in as many months to boast Channing Tatum affecting a good ol’ boy Southern drawl and a prominent…
The significance of Columbus, Indiana’s architectural landmarks was lost on me as a young man growing up a rural part of the state. I had visited…
There are myriad ways in which one can interpret Darren Aronofsky’s latest, the sure-to-be-polarizing psychological thriller mother! Is it a parable about toxic masculinity and the…