Hanley On Film

Sinners (2025) Review

by Jack Hanley of Kinophila and HanleyOnFilm.com SINNERS (USA) Dir. Ryan Coogler In SINNERS, Ryan Coogler steals away from fangs of IP to orchestrate a sumptuous (if not shaggy) plunge into southern gothic horror, where sin seeps through the floorboards like molasses and seduction calls through every note. Subverting

The Filmic 5: Professor Coogler Edition

Your Weekly Film Superlatives By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley I. Film Moment Making Me Happy This Week I've adored director Ryan Coogler since my early film festival programming days where I first encountered his masterful debut, FRUITVALE STATION. And while I MAY be still be a

The Filmic 5: Unknown Stuntman Edition

Your Weekly Film Superlatives By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley I. Film News I Am THRILLED About This Week Something amazing happened this week...the Academy FINALLY listened. ;) This Wednesday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the LONG OVERDUE creation of a competitive category for achievement

The Filmic 5: CinemaCon Edition

Your Weekly Film Superlatives By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley It is a pleasure to be returning to the Filmic 5 after a brief hiatus working the Spring Film Festival Season both as a host and/or part of the screening committees for some amazing Festivals (special thanks to

The Filmic 5: Awards Edition!

Your Weekly Film Superlatives By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley I. Award Moment That Made Me Cheer This Week It is well known that I have ALWAYS fostered a love/hate relationship with Award Shows in general- and the Oscars IN PARTICULAR. Indeed, I used to author a yearly

Who WILL, Who SHOULD, and the ACTUAL BEST Films and Performances of 2024: Oscar Ballot Showdown

In this very special edition of our annual Academy Awards feature, special guest Scott Aigner of Blindspotting: A Film Discovery Podcast joins his co-host Jack Hanley in a Oscar Ballot Prediction grudge-match for the ages…or at least until next year. Actress In A Supporting Role Who Will Win: (Scott)

The Contrarian: 2024 Academy Awards

Film Critic Jack Hanley Brings You His Annual "Anti-Oscars" Cinephile Edition Each year, Kinophila and HanleyOnFilm critic Jack Hanley crafts a nominee list in eight categories comprised entirely of often the more deserving films and performances ignored, snubbed, or neglected by the Academy Awards nomination committee. We select

The Filmic 5: Special YouTube Edition Vol. 2

Your Weekly Film Superlatives By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley I. We Remember David Lynch David Lynch was, perhaps, our greatest singular surrealist alchemist- a smirking conjurer of terrible beauty and dreamlike dread in equal measure. From the industrial wailing of ERASERHEAD to the uncanny suburban Americana horror of

MadS (2024) Review

by Jack Hanley of Kinophila and HanleyOnFilm.com MADS (France) Dir. David Moreau Just WOW. MadS is the single-shot, REC meets Euphoria crossover you didn’t know you needed in your life. Shot in a single take (or at least the illusion of one), this zombie incarnation is teaming with

The Filmic 5: The Let's All Gaze At Bob Edition

Your Weekly Film Superlatives By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley I. Film I Am Loving This Week THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG (Iran) Dir. Mohammad Rasoulof One of my proudest moments during my tenure with the Crested Butte Film Festival was the programming push made by myself and

A Different Man (2024) Review

by Jack Hanley of Kinophila and HanleyOnFilm.com Aaron Schimberg's A DIFFERENT MAN plays Kaufman by way of Kafka in a bleakly black-comedic examination of both the faces you are given... and the ones we fashion for ourselves.Anchored by brilliant turns from both Pearson and Stan, the

Maria (2024) Review

by Jack Hanley of HanleyOnFilm.com MARIA (2024) Dir. Pablo Larraín In a pleasantly surprising departure from his brilliant canon of "horror biopics"—featuring the reliable unraveling of powerful women in isolation (JACKIE, SPENCER)—Pablo Larraín leans heavily and unabashedly into fabulism for his subject's final

The Filmic 5: End Of Year Nostalgia Edition

Your Weekly Film Superlatives By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley I. Film I Am Loving This Week A DIFFERENT MAN (2024) Dir. Aaron Schimberg Aaron Schimberg's A DIFFERENT MAN plays Kaufman by way of Kafka in a bleakly black-comedic examination of both the faces you are given.

The Filmic 5: Are You Not Entertained Edition

Your Weekly Film Superlatives By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley I. Film I Am Loving This Week Nicely surprised by WICKED- while I still hold a bit of a grudge against the McGuire source material for ushering in our over-saturated era of needless classic-canon revisionism that undermines some of

The Filmic 5

Your Weekly Film Superlatives By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley I. Film I Am Loving This Week ANORA (Dir. Sean Baker) The most politically consequential film since PARASITE and unequivocally the best film of 2024. Sean Baker has long proven to be our most vital (and empathetic) American Neorealist-

The Filmic 5

Your Weekly Film Superlatives By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley I hope this finds you all well! I'm thrilled to be back from a bit of a sabbatical working and attending some Fall Film Festivals (my favorite time of year!). Let's get into the 5

The Filmic 5

Your Weekly Film Update By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley Beloved readers- I hope this finds you all well! I'm thrilled to be back from a bit of a sabbatical working and attending some Fall Film Festivals (my favorite time of year!). Let's get into

The Filmic 5

Your Weekly Film Update By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley I. Film I Am Loving This Week CUCKOO (Dir. Tilman Singer) I am loving this stylistically transgressive sophomore offering from German director Tilman Singer that channels the best of the 80’s Central European Arthouse-horror tradition. Singer deliciously seeks

The Filmic Five

Your Weekly Film Update By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley I. Film I Am Loving This Week KINDS OF KINDNESS (Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) Still reeling in existential excitement from these nasty, brutish shorts...a brilliant return to form for arguably our most absurdist auteur. This surrealist and allegorical anthology

The Filmic Five: Special YouTube Edition!

Your Weekly Film Update By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley I. Interview I Am Revisiting This Week I SIMPLY ADORE animation...and legendary animator Bill Plympton is an icon of American animation whose amazing work includes the feature IDIOTS AND ANGELS (2008) as well as over 25 animated shorts.

The Filmic Five

Your Weekly Film Update By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley I. Film I Am Loving This Week While ashamedly late to this visceral, gut-punch of a feature debut, I simply cannot stop thinking about Molly Manning Walker's masterwork HOW TO HAVE SEX- winner of Cannes Un Certain

The Friday 5:

Your Weekly Film Update By Film Critic and Historian Jack Hanley I. Film Dispatch I Am Excited About This Week As we all (rightly) have been gushing over the narrative debuts featured at this year's 2024 Cannes Film Festival (I know I'm eagerly awaiting Sean Baker&

The Friday 5

Your Weekly Film Update By Film Critic and Historian Jack Hanley I. Film Moment I Am Loving This Week One of our great triumphs during my programming/hosting days at the Crested Butte International Film Festival was the selection and screening of Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof's 2020 masterwork

The Friday 5

Your Weekly Film Update By Film Critic and Historian Jack Hanley I. Film I Am Most Looking Forward To Watching This Week I cannot wait for the sin and sensuous spectacle of CHALLENGERS- the latest film by auteur Luca Guadagnino. To ready myself, I have been enjoying the marvelous critical

The Friday 5

Your Weekly Film Update By Film Critic and Historian Jack Hanley I. Release I Am Loving This Week I've been evangelizing Brickman's deliciously sly and subversive critique of capitalism and materialism and the "Reagan-era suburbs" for the longest time...and I'm thrilled