A small Chinese restaurant is about to open tomorrow. Mr. Lee, an apprentice cook, is preparing the dishes and Kanematsu, a young waitress, is writing the menu by hand. Just as the preparations seem to be progressing steadily, the manager collapses. Kanematsu waits for a call from the senior waitress who has accompanied him to the hospital, and continues to write the menu silently under the broken fluorescent light. Then the phone rings, telling him that the manager will be sick tonight. And the night is over... The script and direction of the film are highly effective in making us feel the character of each of the characters and the gentle connection between them in the minimal time and space of just one night and almost only in the kitchen. The strength of the pictures in each scene is also worthy of note.
Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame is a unique film coming from the same studio that brought us The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. While it does have its silly moments to maintain Disney’s family-friendliness, it also carries themes that stick to audiences years after its release.
Naked Gun: The New Police Squad Team delivers exactly what fans want: relentless, expertly crafted chaos that honors the original while cranking everything up to eleven. The gags fire at machine-gun pace—sight jokes layered with wordplay and physical comedy so outrageous it borders on art. It's gleefully self-aware without being cynical, silly without being stupid, and maintains that perfect ZAZ-style balance of treating absolute absurdity with complete seriousness. The film knows exactly what it is: a comedy missile designed for maximum laughs, and it hits its target with surgical precision. Pure, unhinged entertainment that proves spoof comedy still has plenty of life left in it.
The Invite is witty, dramatic, funny, and probably the best comedy released this year so far.
Villeneuve’s Dune is a masterpiece for its crafting process, but references to David Lynch's picture are sometimes too obvious.
While it is more than established that Halston’s life is far from a fairytale, the narrative suffers as a result of the decision to revolve more around sex and drugs than his artistry, it likely does a disservice to his cultural impact by pulling focus from his achievements.
