The Xenomorph, the iconic intergalactic creature from the Alien franchise, has been a powerful image in popular culture since the original Alien premiered in 1979. While many filmgoers associate the monster with director Ridley Scott, the terrifying design came from Swiss artist Hans Rudolf (H.R.) Giger. Giger’s haunting paintings, sculptures and biomechanical visions shaped the … Read more

The Thing (1982) Director: John Carpenter Screenwriter: Bill Lancaster Starring: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, T.K. Carter, David Clennon John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) remains one of the most unsettling and meticulously crafted entries in science fiction horror. Built around a bleak Antarctic setting and an atmosphere of growing paranoia, the film pairs Carpenter’s … Read more

Captain Marvel (2019) Directors: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck Screenwriters: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, Geneva Robertson-Dworet Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Jude Law, Annette Bening, Lashana Lynch, Clark Gregg, Rune Temte, Gemma Chan, Algenis Pérez Soto, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Akira Akbar Eleven years after Marvel Studios launched its shared universe with Jon … Read more

Will Ferrell to Star in Netflix Comedy Inspired by the Eurovision Song Contest Comedy star Will Ferrell is set to headline a new film inspired by the famed European music competition, The Eurovision Song Contest. The project will be produced and distributed by Netflix, and brings together a team of familiar collaborators from both comedy … Read more

The Wandering Earth: China’s 2019 Box Office Sensation By early 2019, one of the biggest surprises at the global box office was not a major Hollywood franchise but a homegrown Chinese blockbuster. While films like Glass and The Lego Movie 2 struggled to hit lofty expectations worldwide, several high-performing foreign-language releases filled gaps in the … Read more

Cruel Intentions (1999) Director: Roger Kumble Screenwriter: Roger Kumble Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair, Louise Fletcher, Joshua Jackson Review: Released in 1999 and adapted from Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s 18th-century novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Cruel Intentions reimagines a classic tale of manipulation and desire within the insulated world of an … Read more

This article was written exclusively for The Film Magazine by Lucas Hill-Paul. Birds of Passage (2018) Directors: Cristina Gallego & Ciro Guerra Screenwriters: Maria Camila Arias & Jacques Toulemonde Vidal Starring: Carmiña Martínez, Natalia Reyes, José Acosta, Jhon Narváez In Birds of Passage, Colombian filmmakers Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego turn their attention toward the … Read more

Fighting With My Family (2019) Director: Stephen Merchant Screenwriter: Stephen Merchant Starring: Florence Pugh, Jack Lowden, Lena Headey, Nick Frost, Vince Vaughn, Dwayne Johnson Stephen Merchant’s Fighting With My Family is an earnest, warmly human portrait of a young woman pursuing a dream in the theatrical, larger-than-life world of professional wrestling. Rather than attempting to … Read more

The Rise of the Female Action Hero: A History A door is kicked in, splinters fly, and a lone figure steps through the smoke. Once, that figure was almost always a man delivering a blunt one-liner before walking away. For decades, action cinema celebrated explosions, brawn and machismo, and women were rarely imagined as the … Read more

I’ve been explicit about my views on Green Book. It is a well-crafted film that fits the mold of what the Academy has tended to reward in recent years: polished performances, crowd-pleasing sentiment, and a narrative that seeks reconciliation rather than provocation. There is nothing technically wrong with those qualities. Yet the film’s thematic choices … Read more