The first-person, single-player horror game Mundaun is out now for Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC platforms. It’s a hand-drawn tale of a grandson returning to his hometown for his grandfather’s funeral but upon arriving makes a grisly discovery.
Continue reading “‘Mundaun’ is a Haunting First-Person Horror Game with a Dark Story”
Never Have I Ever returns this week for its sophomore season, and it seems like our protagonist, Indian American teenager Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), has not learned her lesson from last season on how to be a better person. As shown in the trailers, the second season starts with Devi having to deal with two romantic suitors — Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet) and Ben Gross (Jared Lewison) — and attempting to juggle them both. Of course we know it will lead to heartbreak for the trio and leaves Devi in a really difficult place trying to make things right. There were many times I felt aggravated watching Devi make mistake after mistake and felt like she was never really growing as a person. The thing is, nobody is perfect and as annoying as Devi is when mistakes are made, Never Have I Ever still finds a way to make it as charming and relatable as possible.
Continue reading “‘Never Have I Ever’ Charms as it Deals with Grief and Growing Up”
We’ve needed a Black Widow film since the character was first introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2010’s Iron Man 2. Throughout the eleven years with Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), audiences have learned so much about the character’s difficult upbringing in the infamous Red Room to her time with the Avengers and her ultimate sacrifice in Endgame. In Black Widow, we are given a glimpse into Natasha’s past and how that made her into the badass assassin we know today.
Continue reading “‘Black Widow’ Thrives on Epic Action, Family, and Legacy”
The following has minor plot setup spoilers for the Legends of Tomorrow Season 6 episode “The Satanist’s Apprentice.”
Continue reading “NOC Review: Astra’s a Hell Queen Out of Fire on ‘Legends of Tomorrow’”
It seems like only yesterday when national treasure and lyricist genius Lin-Manuel Miranda graced the Richard Rodgers Theatre as Usnavi in the Broadway production of In the Heights. Now, 13 years later, the Tony Award-winning musical is finally premiering on the big screen next month.
Continue reading “‘In the Heights’ Captures the Beauty of Washington Heights and the Community Behind It”
The following has minor plot setup spoilers for the Legends of Tomorrow Season 6 episode “The Ex-Factor.”
Continue reading “NOC Review: Tala Ashe Shines in the Latest ‘DC’s Legends of Tomorrow’”
The following has minor plot setup spoilers for the Legends of Tomorrow Season 6 episode “Ground Control to Sara Lance.”
Continue reading “NOC Review: ‘DC’s Legends of Tomorrow’ Starts Season 6 Off with a Bang”
Cruel Summer just premiered with two back-to-back episodes — “Happy Birthday, Jeanette Turner” and “A Smashing Good Time.” While many can just chalk this two-hour introduction to the series as a way to truly get fans hooked, it seems to almost be done in a way to really drive all of the storytelling aspects that the series is doing home, basically dedicating one episode each to introducing the two main characters, which you will find yourself torn between as you are forced to pick a side.
Continue reading “NOC Recap: ‘Cruel Summer’ Will Have You Hooked With its Captivating Premiere”
There is a lot of responsibility when it comes to the final installment of a trilogy. With The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, fans are expected to see the fairytale conclusion for the characters that they learned to love from the first two films. The YA romantic comedy To All the Boys series is no exception to this rule. After falling in love with idyllic dreamer Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor) and her dreamy boyfriend Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo), there was a lot riding on To All the Boys: Always and Forever.
Continue reading “‘To All the Boys: Always and Forever’ is a Love Letter to the Fans”
By Laura Sirikul and Mike Manalo
When WandaVision was first announced by Marvel in 2018 as a series centered around Wanda and Vision’s love story, fans were excited to watch their journey since their relationship was introduced in Captain America: Civil War. Prior to the debut of Infinity War, there was hope that Wanda and Vision would make it out alive since they were getting their own show on Disney+. Unfortunately, after Vision’s inevitable death at the hand of Thanos, many of us were confused at just how WandaVision would play out. What would be the premise of the series if Vision is dead? How could Vision come back? Why are they stuck in a series of sitcoms? Why sitcoms?
Continue reading “NOC Review: Weird and Wacky ‘WandaVision’ Wows the MCU”
The Hawai’i International Film Festival is marking their 40th year with a 25-day virtual program. Of the wide variety of stories coming from Hawaii and beyond, Jason K. Lau’s Story Game stands out as a film about just that: storytelling.
College friends James (Alberto Rosende), Chika (Lyrica Okano), and Nicole (Greer Grammer) go camping in Hawaii when they decide to challenge each other to telling the best story possible. With the guide of an app called Story Game, each friend must telling a supernatural story set in Japan, featuring a character with green eyes. Each friend goes at it as they attempt to one up one another, as their narratives come to life.
Continue reading “‘Story Game’ Navigates Celebration of Storytelling Through Odd Plot Choices”
Lumpia brings everyone together.
Continue reading “Lumpia Brings Everyone Together: A Review of ‘Lumpia With A Vengeance: Prelude #1’”
Heyyyy! It’s Kuya P AKA Patrick Michael Strange and I had the extreme pleasure of speaking with the director of the new film, Charm City Kings, making its debut today on HBO Max, Angel Manuel Soto! Check it out!
Continue reading “NOC Exclusive Interview: Angel Manuel Soto, Director of ‘Charm City Kings’”
Heyyyy! It’s Kuya P AKA Patrick Michael Strange and I had the extreme pleasure of speaking with the star of the new film, Charm City Kings, making its debut today on HBO Max, Jahi Di’Allo Winston! Check it out!
Continue reading “NOC Exclusive Interview: Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Star of ‘Charm City Kings’”
The NRW Crew of Glenn Lawrence and Kuya P AKA Patrick Michael Strange got together to do an advance spoiler-free review and discuss the upcoming HBO Max film, Charm City Kings! Tune into HBO Max on October 8 as Charm City Kings rides its way onto your screen!
Stay tuned to the NOC for our interviews with star, Jahi Di’Allo Winston, and director, Angel Manuel Soto!
Continue reading “NRW Review: ‘Charm City Kings’”
I’ve had my many run-ins with cyberbullying. The thought has, and will probably continue to cross my mind, that if I ever met some of these bullies I’m going to give them a piece of my mind. Avo Van Aart’s new film The Columnist takes that sentiment to a whole different level. Actress Katja Herbers stars as an author, former columnist, and homicidal maniac that uses murder to cure writer’s block. This absurdist black comedy goes deep into the psyche of a woman who is tired — tired of patriarchy and tired of cyberbullying.
Continue reading “Fantasia Film Fest 2020 Review: ‘The Columnist’”
Traditional superhero comics have been part of the American pop culture firmament for eight decades. And more often than not, those stories can feel staid and mired in nostalgia for long bygone eras. Which is why creators who come along with bold new interpretations of these characters are usually met with resistance. To wit, when the book trailer for Gotham High — DC Comics’ latest foray into the young adult book market — debuted, the fanboy set went apoplectic.
Continue reading “‘Gotham High’ Breathes Fresh Life into the Bat Mythos”
At long last, 6-inch scale G.I. Joe action figures have arrived. Well, at least one of them. This week, Hasbro Pulse began shipping began shipping its exclusive Deluxe Snake Eyes figure from the upcoming G.I. Joe Classified Series line. I’ve had it open for less than a day and I can already say it’s the best action figure of 2020 (and maybe of all time).
Continue reading “This Deluxe Snake Eyes is the Best Action Figure of the Year”
In the 25 years since Toy Story first hit theaters, the amount of unfavorable films to come out of Pixar versus the number of instant classics can probably be counted on a single hand. That is an insane and unprecedented track record for any studio, and frankly even their worst films are still infinitely better than the average piece of dreck to come out of, say, Illumination Entertainment. That being said, while Onward does not belong on the aforementioned single hand, it doesn’t quite hit the heights of Wall-E, Up, Inside Out, or Coco either. Don’t get me wrong, Onward is a perfectly fine movie — a good movie. It’s also just quite middle-of-the-road compared to Pixar’s usual quality for two-thirds of it.
Continue reading “NOC Review: ‘Onward’ is Mid-Level Magic for Pixar”
This marks my second NOC Theatre review since Hannah and the Dread Gazebo performed at the Fountain Theatre a few months back and it was here that my key interest in doing so was a commitment/announcement of sorts. For as much as I can, my focus will be to review plays & musicals with the qualifying criteria that the director, writer, and/or one of the main cast members (not supporting/ensemble but one of the leads) MUST be a non-white artist. The more PoC in the cast/production team, the better I’ll want to review it as I’ll give a glaring stink eye to all things tokenism.
By Russell Fung
Did anyone ask for a sequel to Sleeping Beauty?
I used to write English-language screenplays for a feature animation studio in China. They hired me to write sequels to Snow White and Cinderella, asking me to infuse Western humor so that it would appeal to an international audience. The experience was difficult because nobody could agree on what the story and message had to be. I was told, “It’s a movie for children, so don’t take the themes too far or too serious. It doesn’t have to be logical or make sense. It just has to be fun and pretty.” I left the projects amicably, because I didn’t want to write a generic story that didn’t resonate with the current human condition.
In the third episode of The Terror: Infamy, one of the main characters told his wife, who put up some items to protect from evil, “It may protect us from spirits, but not from human evil.”
The latest installment of the supernatural anthology series by Alexander Woo and Max Borenstein explores a dark part of history in America during World War II — Japanese American internment and the ghosts (yūrei) that haunt them.
Continue reading “‘The Terror: Infamy’ Doesn’t Need Ghosts to be Scary”
There is currently renewed hype and interest for Keanu Reeves. The fact that he had three films come out over the course of a month — John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum, Always Be My Maybe, and as of last Friday, Toy Story 4 — probably helps a lot.
Continue reading “Thoughts and Reactions to Watching ‘The Matrix’ For the First Time”
