Brian and Charles is a mockumentary based on a short film with the same name. This quirky British film that focuses on the relationship between an inventor and his robot. Brian Gittins (David Earl) is an inventor of useless gadgets. He lives in a cottage in rural Wales. Brian gets inspiration to make a robot and […]
Film
Minions: The Rise of Gru Review
Back in 2010 Illumination announced themselves with Despicable Me and the franchise has become the bedrock of the studio. A fifth film in the franchise has now been released with Minions: The Rise of Gru acting as a prequel. Gru (Steve Carell) is a boy with big dreams. He longs to be a supervillain and wants to join the Vicious 6, […]
Elvis Review
This weekend saw the release of eccentric Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, a biopic epic about the troubled life of the king of rock n’ roll. Oh boy, this is a whole lot of movie. Luhrmann and company have stuffed an almost overwhelming amount of sequins and style into every frame of this film, and […]
The Black Phone Review
Based on a short story by Joe Hill, The Black Phone sees a Sinister reteaming of Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill, and Ethan Hawke for a chilling horror flick. In 1978 a suburb of North Denver is being terrorised by a serial killer. Five boys have gone missing, and Finney (Mason Thames) becomes the sixth child to be […]
Lightyear Review
Toy Story was the film that showed Pixar was a studio to be reckoned with. One of the most popular characters was Buzz Lightyear and the Space Ranger which has earned a spin-off film. Buzz Lightyear (Chris Evans) and a crew of space colonisers get stranded on another planet after Buzz accidentally crashed the ship. Buzz tries to […]
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande Review
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is a character-driven comedy-drama that earned a cinematic release in the UK and was released on Hulu in the USA. Nancy Stokes (Emma Thompson) is a widow and a former schoolteacher. She books meetings with Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack), a male escort. Over the course of their four meetings, Nancy […]
Swan Song Review
Todd Stephens’ Swan Song is one of two recent films to be called Swan Song. Stephens’ film is an LGBT-themed drama set in his hometown of Sandusky, Ohio. Patrick “Pat” Pitsenbarger (Udo Kier) is a retired hairdresser who lives in a nursing home. When he finds out one of his former clients has died, a lawyer requests Pat’s services […]
Jurassic World Dominion Review
Jurassic Park is one of the biggest film franchises around. The original is a classic and the most recent films broke the billion-dollar barrier. The Jurassic World trilogy is concluding with Jurassic World Dominion by bringing together the original and current cast of characters. Four years after the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom dinosaurs have been roaming the globe. Humans have […]
Happening Review
Happening is a French drama based on an autobiographical novel by Annie Ernaux. It explores a time that was oppressive for women. Anne Duchesne (Anamaria Vartolomei) is a university student, studying literature in the 1960s. She discovers she’s pregnant at a time when abortion was illegal in France. Anne desperately seeks a way to terminate the […]
Awesome Con 2022: Washington DC’s Premier Fan Convention
It’s that time of year again! Time for PopCultureManiacs’ resident East Coast American to trek into Washington DC to report on the goings-on at the biggest fan convention in the Capital area: Awesome Con! While last year’s convention was all about recovery and the return of fan events during “Difficult Times”, this year celebrated much […]










