Opening to rave reviews in 2016, Broadway smash Dear Evan Hansen was nominated for nine Tony Awards, taking home the statue in six of those categories,…
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.
After an all-digital rendition due to the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the Toronto International Film Festival returned for its 46th edition this month, offering a hybrid…
Just three years after Gustav Möller’s taut low-budget Danish thriller The Guilty, Antoine Fuqua helms this glossy American remake, leveraging his action sensibilities to squeeze a…
Michael McGowan’s adaptation of Miriam Toews’ acclaimed novel All My Puny Sorrows seeks to explore mental illness and injuries both physical and emotional through its depiction…
Screening at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Contemporary World Cinema lineup, Blaine Thurier’s Kicking Blood puts a unique spin on vampire…
Vampires and filmmaking have been intertwined since the earliest days of cinema, when F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu first terrified audiences in 1922, nearly a decade before…
The 2021 Toronto International Film Festival is officially underway, kicking things off last night with the world premiere of Dear Evan Hansen, the feature film adaptation…
On paper, Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly’s Queenpins sounds like a surefire comedic premise: two Arizona women (Kristen Bell and Kirby Howell-Baptiste) amass a fortune through…
Playwright John Pollono makes his directorial debut with Small Engine Repair, adapting his acclaimed 2011 one-act stage play into a feature-length drama about a trio of…
Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s charmingly awkward portrayal of the assassin Huntress was one of the highlights of last year’s Birds of Prey, and this week’s Netflix entry…
The 2021 Fantasia International Film Festival has come to a close, and after experiencing heart-pounding scares in The Night House and religious zealotry taken to extremes…
Musclebound WWE superstar John Cena may not have the box office drawing power of fellow wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson, nor has he shown the propensity to take…
In the infamous Cabrini-Green housing project in 1977, Sherman Fields (Michael Hargrove) was known throughout the neighborhood for passing out sweets to the local children, but…
A wickedly funny but wildly uneven riff on office politics, Kazuaki Seki’s Office Royale — enjoying its Canadian premiere at the 2021 Fantasia International Film Festival…
Edoardo Vitaletti’s feature-length debut, The Last Thing Mary Saw, is a somber horror tale set in the winter of 1843, where a forbidden romance will have…
Revenge thrillers are rarely in short supply, particularly at genre-heavy affairs like the 2021 Fantasia International Film Festival, and often require something truly unique in order…
The exploration of grief through the horror genre isn’t exactly a new concept — examples can be found as far back as 1973’s Don’t Look Now…
In the opening moments of Leos Carax’s Annette, fingers bang out a punchy piano riff while backup dancers bob their heads along with the beat as…
The Fantasia International Film Festival is back for its 25th anniversary, once again embracing a virtual event composed of scheduled screenings, an on-demand film library, panels,…
Despite the enduring popularity of the legends, there’s never been a truly great cinematic depiction of King Arthur and his heroic Knights of the Round Table…
Oscar winner Tom McCarthy’s Stillwater finds Matt Damon — saddled with a thick goatee, a trucker cap and a pair of wraparound shades — portraying Bill…
As one of the most iconic and beloved attractions at the Disney theme parks, it was only a matter of time before Jungle Cruise was tapped…
The 2021 Toronto International Film Festival continues to shape up, with Dear Evan Hansen — director Stephen Chbosky’s adaptation of the smash hit Broadway musical –…
Fear Street Part 3: 1666 sends the final installment of the horror trilogy back a few centuries to explore the truth behind the legend of Sarah…
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain starts by addressing death, specifically that of its subject. But in this case, it’s not the award-winning chef and television…
After more than a decade in supporting roles, former KGB assassin turned world-saving superhero Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) finally takes center stage in Black Widow, a…
After last week’s Fear Street Part 1: 1994 paid beautifully bloody homage to the slasher flicks of the late 90s, Fear Street Part 2: 1978 winds…
Prolific author R.L. Stine is best known for creating the hugely popular Goosebumps series and its numerous spinoffs, but it was actually the teen-centric Fear Street…
Chris Pratt is no stranger to big budget sci-fi filmmaking, having headlined two Guardians of the Galaxy films for Marvel Studios, and also popping up in…
The 2021 Tribeca Film Festival has officially come to an end, and we’re wrapping up the last of our coverage with more brief impressions of some…
Adapting video games into feature-length films can be a tricky undertaking, and Hollywood has churned out a lengthy list of failures with few success stories in…
As the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival winds down, tension-filled home invasion thriller See For Me — centering on Sophie, a blind woman house-sitting in a remote…
When the New Orleans City Council voted to remove several Confederate monuments in December 2015, they probably didn’t expect groups of armed civilians to stand vigil…
When you’re young, there’s nothing quite like the allure of summer: casting off the responsibilities of the school year, filling your days with adventure and discovery,…