Luca - Movie Review

The Movie: Luca

The Director: Enrico Casarosa

The Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman, Saverio Raimondo, Maya

Rudolph, Marco Barricelli, Jim Gaffigan, Sandy Martin

The Story: A coming of-age story about one young boy experiencing an unforgettable summer filled with gelato, pasta and endless scooter rides, but all the fun is threatened by a deeply-held secret: they are sea monsters from another world just below the water’s surface.

Slaxx - Movie Review

The Movie: Slaxx

The Director: Elza Kephart

The Cast: Romane Denis, Brett Donahue, Sehar Bhojani, Stephen Bogaert

The Story: When a possessed pair of jeans begins to kill the staff of a trendy clothing store, it is up to Libby, an idealistic young salesclerk, to stop its bloody rampage.

The Tender Bar - Movie Review

The Movie: The Tender Bar

The Director: George Clooney

The Cast: Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan, Christopher Lloyd, Lily Rabe. Daniel Ranieri

The Story: A boy growing up on Long Island seeks out father figures among the patrons at his uncle's bar.

Tailgate / Bumperkleef - Movie Review

The Movie: Tailgate / Bumperkleef

The Director: Lodewijk Crijns

The Cast: Jeroen Spitzenberger, Anniek Pheifer, Roosmarijn van der Hoek, Liz Vergeer, Willem de Wolf

The Story: A cocksure, road-raging family man finds himself pursued and terrorized by the vengeful van driver he chooses to tailgate.

CODA - Movie Review

The Movie: CODA

The Director: Siân Heder

The Cast: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Daniel Durant, Marlee Matlin

The Story: As a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family's fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music by wanting to go to Berkeley and her fear of abandoning her parents.

The Tragedy of Macbeth - Movie Review

The Movie: The Tragedy of Macbeth

The Director: Joel Coen

The Cast: Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Bertie Carvel, Alex Hassell, Corey Hawkins, Harry Melling, Brendan Gleeson, Kathryn Hunter

The Story: A tale of murder, madness, ambition, and wrathful cunning.

The Power of the Dog - Movie Review

The Movie: The Power of the Dog

The Director: Jane Campion

The Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee

The Story: Charismatic rancher Phil Burbank inspires fear and awe in those around him. When his brother brings home a new wife and her son, Phil torments them until he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love.

Titane - Movie Review

The Movie: Titane

The Director: Julia Ducournau

The Cast: Vincent Lindon, Agathe Rousselle, Garance Marillier, Laïs Salameh

The Story: A metal highly resistant to heat and corrosion, with high tensile strength alloys, often used in medical prostheses due to its pronounced biocompatibility.

The Matrix: Resurrections - Movie Review

The Movie: The Matrix Resurrections

The Director: Lana Wachowski

The Cast: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jessica Henwick, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra Jonas

The Story: Return to a world of two realities: one, everyday life; the other, what lies behind it. To find out if his reality is a construct, to truly know himself, Mr. Anderson will have to choose to follow the white rabbit once more.

The Monkey King: Reborn - Movie Review

The Movie: The Monkey King: Reborn

The Director: Wang Yun Fei

The Cast: Bian Jiang, Zhang Lei, Cai Haiting, Su Shangqing, Zhang He, Lin Qiang, Liu Sicen , Wang Chenguang, Baomu Zhongyang, Zhang Bin, Chang Jin, Tute Hameng, Zhang Yaohan, Bai Xuecen, Qiuqiu, Chang Wentao, Li Jiaxiang

The Story: After short-tempered trickster Monkey King is insulted while visiting a temple with his master Tang Monk, he destroys a magical tree and accidentally releases the ancient King of Demons, who kidnaps Tang Monk as revenge for his long imprisonment.

Nightmare Alley - Movie Review

The Movie: Nightmare Alley

The Director: Guillermo del Toro

The Cast: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, David Strathairn

The Story: An ambitious carny with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychiatrist who is even more dangerous than he is.

Spider-Man: No Way Home - Movie Review

The Movie: Spider-Man: No Way Home

The Director: Jon Watts

The Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Marisa Tomei

The Story: With Spider-Man's identity now revealed, Peter asks Doctor Strange for help. When a spell goes wrong, dangerous foes from other worlds start to appear, forcing Peter to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.

Changing Directions Interview Series featuring Claudia Sparrow Director of Maxima

Claudia Sparrow joins the Changing Directions Filmmaker Interview Series to talk about Maxima, her award winning documentary that will be released in select theaters and VOD formats on January 11th, 2022.

Drive My Car / ドライブ・マイ・カー - Movie Review

The Movie: Drive My Car / ドライブ・マイ・カー

The Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

The Cast: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tôko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Masaki Okada, Reika Kirishima

The Story: Nishijima Hidetoshi is a stage actor and director happily married to his playwright wife. Then one day she disappears.

West Side Story (2021) - Movie Review

The Movie: West Side Story

The Director: Steven Spielberg

The Cast: Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Mike Faist,

Josh Andrés Rivera, Ana Isabelle, Corey Stoll, Brian d’Arcy James and

Rita Moreno

The Story: The classic tale of fierce rivalries and young love in 1957 New York City.

Encounter - Movie Review

The Movie: Encounter

The Director: Michael Pearce

The Cast: Riz Ahmed, Octavia Spencer, Rory Cochrane, Janina Gavankar, Lucian-River Chauhan and Aditya Geddada

The Story: Desperate to save his two young sons, Jay and Bobby, from a mysterious threat, decorated Marine Malik Khan packs them in a car and sets off on a perilous journey across the western U.S.

Changing Directions Interview Series featuring Jessica Rae and Jearnest Corchado for Raise Your Hand

Jessica Rae and Jearnest Corchado join the Changing Directions Filmmaker Interview Series to talk about Raise Your Hand, the debut feature film for both the director and the actor. We take a deep dive into the filmmaking process, their respective careers, and what telling this story meant to each of them.

Raise Your Hand - Movie Review

The Movie: Raise Your Hand

The Director: Jessica Rae

The Cast: Jearnest Corchado, Hanani Taylor, Joel Steingold, Gregory Scott Cummins, DaJuan Johnson

The Story: Gia and her best friend, Lila, try to survive a rough childhood in a neighborhood where every kid has a sad story to tell. As teenagers, their problems become more complicated, and the stakes get raised.

Wolf (2021) - Movie Review

The Movie: Wolf

The Director: Nathalie Biancheri

The Cast: George MacKay, Lily-Rose Depp, Paddy Considine, Eileen Walsh

The Story: A high-concept arthouse drama about a boy who believes he is a wolf.

The Hand of God - Movie Review

The Movie: The Hand of God

The Director: Paolo Sorrentino

The Cast: Filippo Scotti, Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponangelo, Luisa Ranieri, Renato Carpentieri, Massimiliano Gallo, Betti Pedrazzi

The Story: The story of a boy in the tumultuous Naples of the 1980s. Sorrentino's most personal film yet is a tale of fate and family, sports and cinema, love and loss.

tick, tick...BOOM! - Movie Review

The Movie: tick, tick...BOOM

The Director: Lin-Manuel Miranda

The Cast: Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesús, Vanessa Hudgens, Joshua Henry, Bradley Whitford, Judith Light

The Story: On the cusp of his 30th birthday, a promising young theater composer navigates love, friendship and the pressures of life as an artist in New York City.

Bruised - Movie Review

The Movie: Bruised

The Director: Halle Berry

The Cast: Halle Berry, Adan Canto, Shamier Anderson, Danny Boyd, Jr., Adriane Lenox, Sheila Atim, Valentina Shevchenko, Stephen McKinley Henderson

The Story: A disgraced MMA fighter finds redemption in the cage and the courage to face her demons when the son she had given up as an infant unexpectedly reenters her life.

Double Walker - Movie Review

The Movie: Double Walker

The Director: Colin West

The Cast: Sylvie Mix , Maika Carter, Quinn Armstrong, Justin Rose, Tina Matthews

The Story: A young woman's ghost investigates the mysterious events that led to her own murder.

Encanto - Movie Review

The Movie: Encanto

The Directors: Byron Howard, Jared Bush, Charise Castro Smith

The Cast: Stephanie Beatriz, John Leguizamo, María Cecilia Botero, Diane Guerrero, Jessica Darrow, Angie Cepeda, Wilmer Valderrama

The Story: The tale of an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia, in a magical house, in a vibrant town, in a wondrous, charmed place called an Encanto.

Atomic Cover-Up - HIFF 2021 Documentary Review

The Documentary: Atomic Cover-Up

The Director: Greg Mitchell

The Story: Long suppressed footage of the human suffering caused by the US nuclear bombing of two Japanese cities in August of 1945.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife - Movie Review

The Movie: Ghostbusters: Afterlife

The Director: Jason Reitman

The Cast: Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Annie Potts, Paul Rudd, Celeste O'Connor, Logan Kim, Bokeem Woodbine

The Story: When a single mom and her two kids arrive in a small town, they begin to discover their connection to the original ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind.

Changing Directions Interview Series featuring Maya Cozier Director of She Paradise

Director Maya Cozier joins the Changing Directions Filmmaker Interview Series to talk about She Paradise, her debut feature film, right before its release in theaters and on VOD.

She Paradise - Movie Review

The Movie: She Paradise

The Director: Maya Cozier

The Cast: Onessa Nestor, Kimberly Crichton, Chelsey Rampersad, Michael Cherrie, Denisia Latchman, Kern Mollineau

The Story: A teenage girl stumbles upon a free-spirited dance crew, leading to alluring but unsettling encounters with nightlife and money.

Changing Directions Interview Series: Jessica Kingdon, Kira Simon-Kennedy, Nathan Truesdell for Ascension

Jessica Kingdon, Kira Simon-Kennedy, and Nathan Truesdell join the Changing Directions Filmmaker Interview Series to talk about their documentary Ascension. Such a great conversation about what I believe to be one of the best documentaries of the year.

Belfast - Movie Review

The Movie: Belfast

The Director: Kenneth Branagh

The Cast: Catriona Balfe, Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Ciaran Hinds, Jude Hill

The Story: A young boy and his working class family experience the tumultuous late 1960s.

The Souvenir Part II - Movie Review

The Movie: The Souvenir Part II

The Director: Joanna Hogg

The Cast: Honor Swinton Byrne, Jaygann Ayeh, Richard Ayoade, Ariane Labed, James Spencer Ashworth, Harris Dickinson, Charlie Heaton, Joe Alwyn, Tilda Swinton

The Story: In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.

Teine Sā - The Ancient Ones - 2021 HIFF Movie Review

The Movie: Teine Sā - The Ancient Ones

The Directors: Matasila Freshwater, Mario Faumui, Miki Magasiva, Vela Manusaute, Mario Gaoa

The Cast: Frankie Adams, Elsie Polosovai, Dominic Ona-Ariki, Joseph Naufahu, Yvonne Maea-Brown, Daniel Watterson, Aleni Tufuga

The Story: The ancient female spirits of the Pacific are stirring. Revered and feared, these sacred goddesses have crept back into the modern world to engage with five women each facing their own demons.

Changing Directions Interview Series: Mye Hoang - Director of Cat Daddies for HIFF 2021

Mye Hoang joins the TwoOhSix Podcast during the 2021 Hawai'i International Film Festival to talk about Cat Daddies, her brand new documentary. Being a former cat daddy myself, I was really excited to watch this film and speak to Mye about how the movie came together.

The Emperor's Sword - Movie Review / Home Video Release

The Movie: The Emperor's Sword

The Director: Yingli Zhang, Haonan Chen

The Cast: Fengbin Mu, Yilin Hao, Qihang Zhao, Qiyu Yang

The Story: During a time of peace, a deadly sword that bestows great power upon its wielder was divided and hidden. After the emperor dies, a deranged rebel seizes power and stages a massacre during his search for the blade, leaving only one survivor. Now, the young daughter of a great general is all that stands between a tyrant and his quest for domination.

Great White - Movie Review

The Movie: Great White

The Director: Martin Wilson

The Cast: Katrina Bowden, Aaron Jakubenko, Kimie Tsukakoshi, Tim Kano, Te Kohe Tuhaka

The Story: A blissful tourist trip turns into a nightmare when five seaplane passengers are stranded miles from shore. In a desperate bid for survival, the group try to make it to land before they either run out of supplies or are taken by a menacing terror lurking just beneath the surface.

Lair - Movie Review

The Movie: Lair

The Director: Adam Ethen Crow

The Cast: Corey Johnson, Oded Fehr, Alexandra Gilbreath, Sean Buchanan, Aislinn De'ath, Kashif O'Connor, Anya Newall, Alana Wallace

The Story: When Ben Dollarhdye is accused of murder, saying he was possessed by a demonic force, Steven Caramore investigates his friend's claims, setting off a chain of events that forces a young family into a terrifying battle for survival.

Cat Daddies - HIFF 2021 Documentary Review

The Documentary: Cat Daddies

The Director: Mye Hoang

The Story: A heartwarming collective portrait of eight unique men whose lives have been changed by their love for cats. Some of these men will navigate the unprecedented challenges of 2020 with the help of these feline friends.

Dangerous (2021) - Movie Review

The Movie: Dangerous

The Director: David Hackl

The Cast: Scott Eastwood, Tyrese Gibson, Kevin Durand, Famke Janssen, Mel Gibson

The Story: A reformed sociopath journeys to a remote island to investigate the mystery behind his brother's demise, but soon ends up facing off with more than he bargained for.

Finch - Movie Review

The Movie: Finch

The Director: Miguel Sapochnik

The Cast: Tom Hanks, Caleb Landry Jones, Lora Martinez-Cunningham, Marie Wagenman, Oscar Avila

The Story: A man, a robot and a dog form an unlikely family in a powerful and moving adventure of one man’s quest to ensure that his beloved canine companion will be cared for after he’s gone.

Nightshooters - Movie Review

The Movie: Nightshooters

The Director: Marc Price

The Cast: Jean-Paul Ly, Doug Allen, Nicolas Aaron, Rosanna Hoult, Wendy Glenn, Philip Barantini

The Story: An action thriller about a group of filmmakers who find themselves on the run from a violent horde of criminals after witnessing a brutal gangland execution. Unable to flee the derelict building they have been shooting in, the hapless film crew must use their technical skill and cinematic knowledge to defend themselves.

Eternals - Movie Review

The Movie: Eternals

The Director: Chloé Zhao

The Cast: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree

Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, with Kit Harington, with Salma

Hayek, Angelina Jolie

The Story: When monstrous creatures called the Deviants mysteriously return, the Eternals—a group of heroes from beyond the stars who have protected Earth since the dawn of man—are forced to reunite in order to defend humanity once again.

TwoOhSix Picks - 2021 Hawai International Film Festival, Presented by Halekulani

The 2021 Hawai'i International Film Festival, Presented by Halekulani is here! This is my seventh year covering what has become one of my favorite film festivals of the course of each year. There's always such an amazing lineup of movies from all over the world and it's always nice to see so many different perspectives from all over the place. This year's event is a combination of virtual access and in person screenings with lots of measures and protocols in place to keep everyone safe. See below for my list of TwoOhSix Picks, the movies you definitely want to have on your radar whether you will be attending in person or watching from home.

Snakehead - Movie Review

The Movie: Snakehead

The Director: Evan Jackson Leong

The Cast: Sung Kang, Celia Au, Devon Diep, Shuya Chang, Perry Yung, Jamie Choi, Jade Wu, Amy Tsang, Sandra Eloani, Eric Elizaga

The Story: A Chinese immigrant get caught up in an international crime ring of human smuggling while attempting to make a better life for her family.

Antlers (2021) - Movie Review

The Movie: Antlers

The Director: Scott Cooper

The Cast: Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons, Jeremy T. Thomas, Graham Greene, Scott Haze, Rory Cochrane, Amy Madigan

The Story: In an isolated Oregon town, a middle-school teacher and her sheriff brother become embroiled with her enigmatic student, whose dark secrets lead to terrifying encounters with a legendary ancestral creature who came before them.

Last Night in Soho - Movie Review

The Review: Last Night in Soho

The Director: Edgar Wright

The Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Thomasin McKenzie, Matt Smith, Terence Stamp, Diana Rigg, Rita Tushingham, Michael Ajao, Synnove Karlsen

The Story:  An aspiring fashion designer, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer, Sandie. But the glamour is not all it appears to be and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something far darker.

Becoming Cousteau - Documentary Review

The Documentary: Becoming Cousteau

The Director: Liz Garbus

The Story: A look at the life, passions, achievements and tragedies surrounding the famous explorer and environmentalist Jacques Cousteau, featuring an archive of his newly restored footage.

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain - Movie Review

The Movie: The Electrical Life of Louis Wain

The Director: Will Sharpe

The Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy, Andrea Riseborough, Toby Jones, Sharon Rooney, Aimee Lou Wood, Taika Waititi, Olivia Colman 

The Story: The extraordinary true story of eccentric British artist Louis Wain (Benedict Cumberbatch), whose playful, sometimes even psychedelic pictures helped to transform the public's perception of cats forever.