Michael Frank

Thomas Brodie-Sangster broke onto the acting scene when he was just a kid, becoming known as the cute tyke from Love Actually with a crush on Keira Knightley. Nearly two decades later, Brodie-Sangster is still acting, though the profession has continuously changed as he’s matured. Now, he’s one of the veteran actors on each set, popping up in franchises like The Maze Runner and acclaimed limited series like Godless and The Queen’s Gambit.
In the latter, the actor plays Benny Watts, the cocky,...

This review of In the Heights (a film you can also stream on HBO Max) contains no spoilers.
If you have an opportunity to see Jon M. Chu’s In the Heights in a theater, you should jump at that chance. Soon after, you’ll understand why the Broadway-adapted musical has become intertwined with the reopening of movie theaters and the reopening of New York City after over a year of supposed hibernation. America’s brightest city never fell asleep, though Chu’s film represents a turning point, one ro...

This article discusses the ending of the Netflix film Carnaval, so it will contain major spoilers.
Read the review.
Carnaval, Netflix’s Brazilian film from Leandro Neri, tells the story of four young women in Salvador for the Bahian Carnival, a world of influencers, musicians, and somebodies. The friends all confront their fears, insecurities, and shortfalls in a series of events that only become more far-fetched as the narrative progresses. Focusing on Nina (Giovana Cordeiro), the film seeks...

This review of the Netflix film Sweet & Sour does not contain spoilers — the South Korean rom-com was released on the streaming service on June 4, 2021.
Lee Gye-byeok’s Sweet & Sour, Netflix’s South Korean romantic comedy, begins with a hepatitis patient in the hospital. The patient starts a flirtatious, odd relationship with Da-eun (Chae Soo-bin), a young nurse who asks to call him “Hyeok.” As the 20-something patient gets healthier over the course of three months, their relationship becomes...

This review of the Netflix film Carnaval contains no spoilers.
From director Leandro Neri, Netflix’s Brazilian girls’ trip Carnaval follows a social media influencer and her friends on their vacation to the Bahian Carnival in Salvador. They dance, they fall in love, they learn about themselves and each other. The film takes time to forcibly suggest that social media isn’t reality, but neither is the story of Carnaval, hurt by absurd character development, unnecessary romance, and a realized s...

Mirroring themes and moments from other high school films like Superbad, Booksmart, and Unpregnant, Natalie Morales’s Plan B starts like most in the genre: with a (somewhat) massive party. And like those other movies, the raunchy road trip comedy revolves around best friends, two girls that want more out of their high school experience, more out of the finale of these four years that are the lead-up to what many folks call “the best years of your life.” It devolves into more than a one-night ...

This review of the Netflix film Blue Miracle contains no spoilers.
The first time Dennis Quaid appears in Blue Miracle, his newest on Netflix, he looks haggard. His voice sounds like the scraping of gravel as he stomps around his dingy boat, weathered by time at sea. A retired captain and prized fisherman, Wade (a wonderful rhyming name for Quaid) hasn’t seen land for weeks, maybe months. Even when Blue Miracle shifts its focus to the orphanage of Casa Hogar, run by Omar (Jimmy Gonzales), Qua...

This article discusses the ending of the Netflix film Blue Miracle, so it will contain major spoilers.
Read the review.
Director Julio Quintana’s drama Blue Miracle can only end in jubilation. The story of a retired fishing captain teaming up with teens to save their orphanage, the Netflix film leans into the clichés of its story, happy to exist in the hopes it’ll provide glimpses of inspiration.
Starring Dennis Quaid as Captain Wade and Jimmy Gonzales as Omar, the head of the orphanage, the ...

This article discusses the ending of Netflix film Army of the Dead, so it will contain major spoilers.
Read the review.
Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead brings the director back to his filmmaking roots: zombie movies. With a heist-focused narrative, the Netflix film brings together a large, all-in cast to battle a walled City of Sin, teeming with both smart and not-so-smart undead. Starring Dave Bautista as Scott Ward, the leader of the pack, Army of the Dead takes a good 90 minutes of unimagin...

This review of the Netflix film Army of the Dead does not contain spoilers — it will be released on the streaming service on May 21, 2021.
Before Zack Snyder inspired millions (actually thousands) of fans to flood onto social media to demand a cut of his version of the Justice League, before he became a darling director of the superhero genre, even before he showed the epic Battle of Thermopylae on screen in 300, he made a zombie movie. In fact, he remade one of the pillars of zombie entertai...

Cine-File continues to cover streaming and other online offerings during this time of covidity. We will list/highlight physical screenings at the top of the list for theaters and venues that have reopened, and list streaming/online screenings below.
Check the venues’ websites for information on safety protocols and other procedures put in place.
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NEW! -- EPISODE #17
Episode #17 of the Cine-Cast opens with Associate Editors Ben and Kathleen Sachs discussing th...

Nearly 16 months after it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, Robert Machoian’s The Killing of Two Lovers, picked up by NEON, has arrived. Machoian, who grew up in King City and told me he used to frequent the punk scene in San Luis Obispo, has spent most of his days somewhere in California, in small towns with citizens that all know each other’s relationship statuses. With a population hovering around 700, Kanosh, Utah became the site for this project, his first solo film in years, work...