The Last Duel is a 2021 epic historical drama film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Nicole Holofcener, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon, based on the 2004 book The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France by Eric Jager. The film is a period drama set in 14th century France.
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Brian Wilson Long Promised Road is a 2021 documentary film about the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson that was directed by Brent Wilson (no relation). It follows Brian and Rolling Stone editor Jason Fine as they drive around Los Angeles and visit locations from Brian’s past.
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Last Night in Soho is a 2021 British psychological horror film directed and co-written by Edgar Wright. Set in modern day London, the film moves between this contemporary setting and the 1960s in a fantastical premise, that is good fun overall but stretches the bounds of the suspension of disbelief somewhat.
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Eternals is a 2021 American superhero film drama based on the Marvel Comics of the same name. Created by the legendary Jack Kirby in the 1970s, Eternals’ premise was inspired by the Chariots of the Gods? novel which involves the hypothesis that the technologies and religions of many ancient civilizations were given to them by ancient astronauts who were welcomed as gods.
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The Velvet Underground is a 2021 documentary film directed and produced by Todd Haynes that follows the band The Velvet Underground. The documentary film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on July 7, 2021 and was released on October 15, 2021, by Apple TV+, to critical acclaim.
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The Night House is an American supernatural horror drama film directed by David Bruckner, based on an original screenplay by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski. The story concerns a widow who discovers a dark secret about the house her late husband built, which then leads her to a psychological battle which may cost her, her very life.
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Don’t Let Go is a 2019 American science fiction horror thriller film written and directed by Jacob Aaron Estes. The film is a cross between a supernatural time travel story and a crime procedural and involves a premise that is essentially borrowed from Frequency (2000). This basic premise has been taken aboard as a staple of many South Korean movies and TV series as well (for e.g. The Phone), for some reason.
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The Many Saints of Newark is an American crime drama film directed by Alan Taylor and written by David Chase and Lawrence Konner. The film is a prequel of The Sopranos, the popular HBO series created by Chase with numerous younger versions of favourite characters appearing.
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The Guilty is a 2021 American crime thriller film directed and produced by Antoine Fuqua, from a screenplay by Nic Pizzolatto. A remake of the 2018 Danish film of the same name, the film stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Christina Vidal, with the voices of Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough, Eli Goree, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Paul Dano, and Peter Sarsgaard.
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Free Guy is a 2021 American science fiction action comedy film directed by Shawn Levy from a screenplay by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn, and a story by Lieberman. While in general, video game adaptations have failed miserably, Free Guy succeeds by being inspired by and referencing video game culture. Yes, Free Guy is able to engage despite the superficial trappings of its premise, due mainly to excellent writing, eye-catching special effects and Ryan Reynolds’ on-screen ‘everyman’ charisma.
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Candyman (1992) is an American supernatural horror film, written and directed by Bernard Rose and based on Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden”. The movie has been recognised as one of the best movies of the horror genre, with the titular character becoming one of the most distinctive as well.
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Candyman (2021) is a supernatural horror film directed by Nia DaCosta and written by Jordan Peele, Win Rosenfeld, and DaCosta. The film is a direct sequel to the 1992 film of the same name and the fourth film in the Candyman film series, based on the short story “The Forbidden” by Clive Barker.
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Old is a 2021 American horror thriller film written, directed, and produced by M. Night Shyamalan. It is based on the French-language Swiss graphic novel Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters. As with most M. Night Shyamalan films, there is a significant plot twist in the story denouement, which ultimately will affect the viewers’ enjoyment of the film, depending on whether one is able to accept the logic behind said plot twist.
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Dune Part One is a 2021 American science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve with a screenplay by Jon Spaihts, Villeneuve, and Eric Roth. It is the first of a planned two-part adaptation of the 1965 novel of the same name by Frank Herbert, which covers roughly the first half of the book.
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Malignant is a 2021 American horror film directed by James Wan from a screenplay by Akela Cooper, based on an original story by Wan, Ingrid Bisu, and Cooper. The film was released in the cinemas and on HBO Max in September 2021. Malignant is mainly a slasher movie, with faint unexplained paranormal tropes.
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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is an American superhero action-adventure film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and based on the Marvel comics character created by writer Steve Englehart and artist Jim Starlin. Our story analysis will closely examine the plot and characters of the film and will contain spoilers.
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The GodFather Trilogy consists of three crime drama films directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and co-written by Coppola with novelist Mario Puzo. The trilogy traces the life of mafia don Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) from the 1940s to the late 1970s. The constituent films in the trilogy were The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Godfather Part III (1990), and were inspired by Puzo’s 1969 novel of the same name.
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Reminiscence is a 2021 American neo-noir scifi thriller drama film written and directed by Lisa Joy, in her feature directorial debut. Joy – together with spouse Jonathan Nolan – were the showrunners for the HBO scifi TV series, Westworld. And of course, Christopher Nolan is Joy’s brother-in-law and one cannot but feel that Reminiscence shares – or attempts to, in any case – similar high concept scifi tropes as Nolan’s Inception and Tenet.
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The Rewrite is a 2014 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Marc Lawrence. The film stars Hugh Grant as a washed-up screenwriter who begins teaching at Binghamton University, and Marisa Tomei as a single mother with whom the screenwriter finds romance. Considering that the main character is a screenwriter, we thought it would be appropriate to conduct a detailed analysis of the story in The Rewrite.
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Fear Street Part Three 1666 is a 2021 American slasher film directed by Leigh Janiak, with a script co-written by Phil Graziadei and Janiak, from an original story by Kyle Killen, Graziadei, and Janiak. Based on the book series of the same name by R. L. Stine, the film was released by Netflix on July 9, 2021 as the third and final instalment in the Fear Street trilogy.
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Fear Street Part Two 1978 is a 2021 American slasher horror drama film directed by Leigh Janiak, with a script co-written by Phil Graziadei and Janiak, from an original story by Kyle Killen, Graziadei, and Janiak. Based on the book series of the same name by R. L. Stine, the film was released by Netflix on July 9, 2021 as the second instalment in the Fear Street Trilogy.
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Black Widow is a 2021 American superhero action-adventure drama film based on the Marvel Comics featuring the character of the same name. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the 24th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The movie was slated to be released in 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
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Fear Street Part One 1994 is a 2021 American slasher film directed by Leigh Janiak, with a script co-written by Phil Graziadei and Janiak, from an original story by Kyle Killen, Graziadei, and Janiak. Based on the book series of the same name by R. L. Stine, the film was released by Netflix on July 2, 2021 as the first installment in the Fear Street Trilogy.
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The Tomorrow War is a 2021 American science fiction action film directed by Chris McKay in his live-action directorial debut. The movie stars Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, J. K. Simmons, Betty Gilpin, Sam Richardson and follows a group of present-day soldiers who are sent into the future to fight an alien army (called the White Spikes).
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A Quiet Place Part II is a 2021 American scifi horror film, and the sequel to 2018’s A Quiet Place, following the family from the first film as they continue to navigate and survive in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by blind aliens with an acute sense of hearing. If you have read our review of the original movie, you would be aware that we found the premise to be critically flawed. Obviously that flawed premise has not changed but there are even more problems with the story of A Quiet Place Part II, as our analysis reveals.
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