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Reposted by Dancin’ Dan on Film

And the Runner-Up Is @andtherunnerupis.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Listen to a preview of today's A Woman Robbed, discussing Björk in Dancer in the Dark and Amy Adams in Enchanted! @dancindan.bsky.social joins me to review their performances, discuss why they weren't nominated, and more! Full episode on Patreon! linktr.ee/andtherunner...

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Marty Mauser may be a little shit, but MARTY SUPREME and Timothée Chalamet are irresistible - an ‘80s-styled, 50s-set sports movie with an electric score by Daniel Lopatin and an ensemble firing on all cylinders. A bit too long, but the ending makes it worth it. A huge crowdpleaser. We have a race?

media.tenor.com

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

There was a moment in THE LONG WALK where I thought, “Philip Seymour Hoffman would be SO PROUD of Cooper’s performance,” and then a moment later that absolutely broke me because of that thought. He and David Jonsson are the best onscreen duo of the year. Absolutely incredible.

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Chloe Zhao’s brutal, intimate masterpiece HAMMET cracked me wide open. A gorgeous tribute to the art that comes out of grief and how it can heal us. Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal’s emotionally raw performances rank with the best ever. That finale. ALL the tears. #TIFF50

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

I had a lot of fun with EXIT 8! Gets a bit ridiculous with the “why are you not turning around and running from the VERY OBVIOUS anomaly right in front of you” bits, but it’s clever, well-crafted, and a smart adaptation of the game. Kazunari Ninomiya is an endearing lead. #TIFF50

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Anders Thomas Jensen is fast becoming a new favorite. THE LAST VIKING is full of his signature off-the-wall humor from its cast of eccentrics, and it’s a genuinely emotional family drama to boot! Didn’t know how much I needed Mads Mikkelsen singing “Chiquitita”. #TIFF50

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Edward Berger directs the ever-loving hell out of BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER, a basic gambling flick elevated by a blast of lurid style and a sweatily committed Colin Farrell. Interesting spin on the eat-the-rich narrative, in which eating the rich just makes you sick. #TIFF50

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Guillermo Del Toro’s gothically grand FRANKENSTEIN is as much of a visual feast as all his films. Isaac’s mad genius is a hoot but Elordi’s physicality as the (too?) sensitive creature is a revelation. GDT’s love for his creatures gets the better of him? #TIFF50

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

The Professional meets Imaginary in Bryan Fuller’s DUST BUNNY. His signature blend of whimsy and macabre transfers seamlessly to the big screen, with delightfully florid camerawork and music. The CGI doesn’t always convince, but the premise and execution are so fun! #TIFF50

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Tessa Thompson makes for a feisty, dynamic HEDDA in Nia DaCosta’s handsomely designed Ibsen adaptation. The change of setting and sexuality works wonderfully well, but changes to the last act leave the ending less impactful than the play. #TIFF50

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

Derek Cianfrance’s ROOFMAN is a perfectly entertaining mainstream crowdpleaser. This is Channing Tatum’s best role in years and he delivers his best performance as a man fighting for his better nature but desperate for connection. Dunst, as always, is sublime. #TIFF50

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

Just got flattened by Hikari’s RENTAL FAMILY. It wears its heart on its sleeve and is so generically heartwarming that I suspect a lot of people will not care for it, but I found its sense of empathy irresistible, and Brendan Fraser is the perfect vessel for it. #TIFF50

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

PRAISE BE! WAKE UP DEAD MAN sees Rian Johnson put a stake thru the heart of those who approach religion from a place of hate rather than love. Another flawlessly cast, cleverly written, socially relevant, supremely entertaining mystery from the new master of the genre. #TIFF50

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Kyle Gallner and Samara Weaving have combustible chemistry in CAROLINA CAROLINE, a tremendously entertaining Bonnie & Clyde update that hit the gas early on and never lets up. As a bonus, the questions of destiny and self-determination feel incredibly relevant. #TIFF50

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Byun Sung-hyun’s super-entertaining ‘70s airport thriller GOOD NEWS is incredibly exciting for its first half before becoming a bit exhausting in its second. The political satire is hilarious, but the plot machinations get so complex that it can be hard to keep up. #TIFF50

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Sydney Sweeney shines in CHRISTY, bobbing and weaving her way through a generic boxing flick that shines most when it lets her dig deep into the character. Pulls no punches about its subject’s not-so-savory side, and the emotion hits hard, but it’s prestige filmmaking at its blandest. #TIFF50

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

The dialogue-free element of MOTOR CITY never rises above the level of a gimmick and the soundtrack choices may be obvious, but the action is incredibly badass. An artsy exploitation flick in search of a Grindhouse-style double feature. Alan Ritchson is a fucking beast. #TIFF50

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

I can’t believe NIRVANA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE exists. A genuine how-the-fuck-did-they-pull-this-off masterpiece of wacky comic hijinks with two best friends. I don’t think any Midnight Madness film will ever top this. #TIFF50

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

John Early’s MADDIE’S SECRET had me in stitches - a dead-on parody of Lifetime-esque after school special movies with genuine dramatic heft courtesy of Early’s fabulous gender-bending performance, which is so much more than a piece of stunt casting. #TIFF50

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Aneil Karia’s bold, brutal modern-dress HAMLET makes some brilliant staging choices, most of which work, but Riz Ahmed’s livewire performance as a man so wracked by grief that he drags everyone around down with him is on another level. Great ensemble and score. #TIFF50

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

I’m not ready to really talk about SENTIMENTAL VALUE in depth because it’s a touch too personal, but it is Trier’s best film, Reinsve’s best performance, and Skarsgard’s crowning achievement. An intimate metacinematic epic that goes places I was not expecting. #Cannes2025

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

THE HISTORY OF SOUND tests the limits of stereotypically British restraint as it works through its story of love and folk music. Josh O’Connor and Paul Mescal build a palpably deep connection but the clichéd second half is so restrained it loses its pulse. Handsome but uninspired. #Cannes2025

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Scarlett Johansson’s feature debut ELEANOR THE GREAT is a conventional but sensitive portrayal of the many ways grief freezes us in place. June Squibb is at her hilarious and heartbreaking best as a woman whose grief-based white lie has unintended ripple effects. #Cannes2025

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Julia Ducournau throws enough ideas for a hundred movies at ALPHA to try to make something stick, but it’s too much for anything to cohere. The emotional strength of the performances keeps it watchable, but this is a raw as fuck mess of titanic proportions. #Cannes2025

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

EAGLES OF THE REPUBLIC is my first Competition dud at #Cannes2025 - not funny enough to be a great comedy, too surface-level to be a great drama, and not exciting enough to be a great thriller… until everything snaps into place for a killer final sequence. Too little, too late.

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Kleber Mendonça Filho’s THE SECRET AGENT took a while for me to get into but once I did, I was so taken by its playful blend of historical drama, spy thriller, and metacinematic research project. Wagner Moura is genuinely great across multiple time periods. #Cannes2025

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Chie Hayakawa’s achingly tender yet resolutely unmanipulative coming of age drama RENOIR had me on the verge of tears for its entire second half, and pushed me over in the most gentle, unexpected way. Lead Yui Suzuki gives a performance beyond her years. #Cannes2025

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Hafzia Herzi’s LA PETITE DERNIÈRE (The Little Sister) is a generic gay story elevated by Nadia Melliti’s heartbreaking performance. Charming, but slight in its examination of a young Muslim woman’s coming of sexual age. #Cannes2025

Nadia Melliti and Park Ji-Min in THE LITTLE SISTER

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

The bulk of Sebastian Lelio’s THE WAVE is the most audacious thing I’ve seen at #Cannes2025 - an extended increasingly surrealistic musical sequence set during the Chilean university protests that examines every nuance of the fight the students undertook. Daniela López is a charisma bomb lead.

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

Ari Aster’s COVID-era satire EDDINGTON is his most straightforward film to date, a sniper-accurate vision of America at its most broken. People are gonna have a LOT of feelings about how on-the-nose it is, but it lands a high percentage of its hits. #Cannes2025

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

The puberty allegory of THE PLAGUE may be a little obvious, but first-time director Charlie Polinger directs it brilliantly, capturing pre-adolescent anxiety with the sharpness of a butcher knife. Captures the cruelty of pre-teen boys with haunting accuracy. #Cannes2025

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Absolutely gobsmacked by AMRUM, Fatih Akin’s stunning examination of what the end of fascism looks like for true believers and the children who don’t know any better. Beautifully photographed and deeply felt, with a tremendous child performance at its center. #Cannes2025

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Dominik Moll’s CASE 137 is fired the fuck up about the state of policing in France. An infuriating, slickly entertaining procedural thriller with a dynamite Léa Drucker as a police inspector caught between a victim needing justice and a system designed to not give it. #Cannes2025

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO tells a touching child’s eye view story of the AIDS epidemic. Found families are the oldest trope in gay stories but this one has a delicate touch that recontextualizes a lot of familiar story beats into something very special. #Cannes2025

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

No franchise has better action than MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. THE FINAL RECKONING has two of the franchise’s most ridiculous, and therefore best, action sequences. It also indulges in all the franchise’s worst tendencies, but as a final(?) entry, it satisfies. #Cannes2025

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Mascha Schilinski takes the coming of age film to stunning new heights in SOUND OF FALLING. An intimate epic of female becoming across decades of families in one house, littered with striking, gorgeously lit images. Sofia Coppola, eat your heart out. nextbestpicture.com/sound-of-fal... #Cannes2025

nextbestpicture.com

"SOUND OF FALLING" - Review

THE STORY – Over the course of a century, four girls spend their youth on the same four-sided farmstead in the Altmark region. As they move through their respective presents, traces of the past gradua...

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Becoming a man is rough, and young ENZO is learning that the hard way. Robin Campillo sensitively directs Laurent Cantet’s coming of age film, a more pragmatic Call Me By Your Name that acknowledges that young love can have a lasting impact even if it isn’t reciprocated. #Cannes

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

First screening of the first full day of Cannes - Laurent Cantet & Robin Campillo’s ENZO, in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar section.

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Pop music is a universal language and Amélie Bonnin’s musical LEAVE ONE DAY understands that beautifully, having the characters sing when they don’t know how to express themselves. Loved the easygoing chemistry between the lovely Juliette Armanet and charismatic Basiten Bouillon. A low-key charmer.

Juliette Armanet and Basiten Bouillon in Leave One Day

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Badged up and ready to start Cannes 2025 with the premiere of the new documentary ZELENSKY

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

WARFARE is finally in theaters and it’s a far cry from the jingoistic propaganda piece you might expect. Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza and director Alex Garland have created one of the most hellish “war is hell” films ever made. Check my review: awardswatch.com/warfare-revi...

awardswatch.com

‘Warfare’ Review: Alex Garland’s Band of Brothers is a Brutal Tale of Innocence Lost [B+] | AwardsWatch

It’s been said that war does not determine who is right, only who is left.…

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

THE ASSESSMENT, one of the more fascinating films I saw at this past TIFF, is now in theaters! I got to interview stars Elizabeth Olsen and Alicia Vikander about their personal connection to the story and how relevant it is to the current moment: nextbestpicture.com/the-next-bes...

nextbestpicture.com

The Next Best Picture Podcast - Interview With "The Assessment" Stars Elizabeth Olsen & Alicia Vikander

“The Assessment” had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where it received positive reviews for its sci-fi drama concept and performances from Elizabeth Olsen, A...

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Reposted by Dancin’ Dan on Film

Tom & Lorenzo @tomandlorenzo.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

This is one of those Oscar dresses that makes us immediately feel bad that the wearer isn't going to win tonight because this frock deserves to go down in history

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Dancin’ Dan on Film @dancindan.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

It’s that time of year again, so here’s my Top Ten of 2024 (with shoutouts to a LOT of honorable mentions - I don’t care what anybody says, this was a GREAT year for film!). What were your favorites this year? nextbestpicture.com/nbp-top-10-b...

nextbestpicture.com

NBP Top 10 Best Films Of 2024 - Dan Bayer

There was a lot of chatter in 2024 about how it was a lesser film year, largely due to the strikes that halted many productions in the previous year. However, that’s not how the year played out for me...

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