Actor Christoph Waltz (1956)

No Time to Die (2021) is the latest installment in the James Bond franchise, marking its twenty-fifth film produced by Eon Productions. Madeleine Swann, as a young girl, witnesses her mother’s murder at the hands of terrorist Lyutsifer Safin. Safin’s family was previously assassinated by Swann’s father, Mr. White, under orders from Ernst Stavro Blofeld. In self-defense, Swann shoots Safin and escapes but falls into a frozen lake where Bond rescues her. Years later, after Blofeld’s arrest, Swann joins Bond on a trip to Matera where she convinces him to visit the grave of his former lover ...

The French Dispatch (2021) is an American comedy drama film. Written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson from a story he co-created with Roman Coppola, Hugo Guinness, and Jason Schwartzman, it boasts a sprawling cast and tells three unique tales set within the fictional French foreign bureau of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun newspaper’s concluding edition. In the fictional French town of Ennui-sur-Blasé (translated as “boredom on jaded”), Arthur ...

The comedy film, Rifkin’s Festival (2020), is the work of writer and director Woody Allen as an American-Spanish-Italian collaboration. Mort Rifkin, a snobby elderly film critic from New York, confides in his therapist about recent events in his life. He reluctantly accompanies his much younger wife Sue to a film festival in San Sebastián. She works for Philippe, a French director whose ordinary and unoriginal anti-war movie is being hailed as a masterpiece by all but Mort. As Sue and Philippe’s relationship turns flirtatious, Mort becomes increasingly envious. His unsettling thoughts and fears are ...

Alita: Battle Angel (2019) is an American cyberpunk action film adapted from Yukito Kishiro’s Gunnm manga series. The story takes place in 2563 on a ravaged Earth, dubbed ‘The Fall’, where Dr. Dyson Ido comes across a brain-attached cyborg while scavenging for parts in Iron City’s scrapyard. After reuniting the body and brain, Ido names the cyborg ‘Alita’ after his late daughter. With no recollection of her past, Alita quickly forms a bond with Hugo, a young man longing to escape to the opulent sky city of Zalem, and Dr. Chiren, Ido’s estranged ex-wife. Upon discovering ...

Creating a new world of possibilities, Downsizing (2017) is an American science fiction comedy-drama film directed by Alexander Payne and written by both Payne and Jim Taylor. This revolutionary medical procedure, known as Downsizing, offers an environmentally-friendly option for those seeking economic benefits. When Paul, an occupational therapist with a kind heart, decides to undergo the procedure and enter into this brand-new existence, he faces a choice between living a sheltered life or using his small stature to make ...

Tulip Fever (2017), a historical romantic drama directed by Justin Chadwick and written by Deborah Moggach and Tom Stoppard, is based on Moggach’s novel of the same name. It follows the story of Sophia, an orphan raised in a Dutch convent during the time of tulip mania in the 17th century. She is offered a marriage proposal from Cornelis, a much older spice merchant, which allows her to leave the convent and provide dowries for her sisters to emigrate to New Amsterdam. ...

Spectre (2015) is the latest James Bond film produced by Eon Productions. Tasked with a mission by his former boss, M, MI6 agent James Bond foils a bombing attempt at a Day of the Dead festival in Mexico City. After recovering a telltale octopus ring from the deceased attacker, Marco Sciarra, Bond uncovers his involvement with an enigmatic organization. However, upon returning to London, the new M – Gareth Mallory – reprimands Bond for acting without authorization. Meanwhile, M finds himself embroiled in a power struggle with Max Denbigh (dubbed ‘C’ by Bond), Director-General of the newly formed Joint Intelligence Service that combines ...

Big Eyes (2014), a biographical drama film directed by Tim Burton and written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, stars Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz. In 1958, Margaret Ulbrich moves with her daughter Jane to North Beach in San Francisco, where she finds employment painting illustrations at a furniture factory. At an outdoor art show, she meets Walter Keane, who sells paintings of Parisian street scenes but earns his ...

An American animated fantasy action-adventure film, titled Epic (2013), is loosely based on William Joyce’s 1996 children’s book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs. Following the death of her mother, 17-year-old Mary Katherine (M.K.) moves in with her eccentric scientist father Professor Bomba in Danbury, Connecticut. Bomba has dedicated his life to researching the Leafmen, small humanoid soldiers who defend the nearby forest from dangerous creatures known as Boggans. Despite her irritation with her father’s work, M.K. believes his theories to be nonsense. At the same time, Nod, a rebellious ...

Terry Gilliam’s science fiction masterpiece, The Zero Theorem (2013), takes place in a bizarre cyberpunk future of the mid-21st century. It follows the story of Qohen Leth, an eccentric and reclusive programmer who works for the ontological research division of a large company known as Mancom. Qohen, who refers to himself in plural form, spends his days crunching ‘entities’ and avoiding the noisy office by requesting disability leave or permission to work from home. He fears missing an important phone call that he has been waiting for years and is also dealing with a recent loss of hair, which he ...

Django Unchained (2012), a Quentin Tarantino production, takes us to 1858 Texas where two brothers, Ace and Dicky Speck, are seen driving enslaved men and women. One of these slaves is Django, who has been torn apart from his wife Broomhilda von Shaft – an English and German-speaking house slave. The group is stopped by Dr. King Schultz, a former dentist turned bounty hunter, who is looking to buy Django for his knowledge on the notorious Brittle brothers. When Ace refuses to cooperate, Schultz takes matters into his own hands by killing him and using Dicky’s horse as leverage. He then advises the rest of ...

Inglourious Basterds (2009) is an alternative history war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The plot centers around two intersecting plans to assassinate the leaders of Nazi Germany at a Paris cinema. One operation is carried out by a team of Jewish American soldiers under the command of First Lieutenant Aldo Raine, while the other is led by French Jewish cinema owner Shosanna Dreyfus, seeking revenge for her family’s murder. Both are up against SS colonel Hans Landa, infamous for his brutal persecution of Jews. The title was inspired by a 1978 Euro War film called The Inglorious Bastards, ...