‘Undertone’ Review Horror, as a genre, exists by playing on our five senses. Terrifying images, grisly portrayals we feel ourselves, grotesque smells and tastes we can’t help but imagine, and of course creepy sounds that set us on edge. First-time directors in the horror genre love to experiment with how to accomplish this very task, so it should come as no surprise that first time director Ian Tuascon chose to experiment with sound in his directorial debut, undertone.

The effectively creepy 'Undertone' manages to elevate its own cliches thanks to strong direction,

‘EPiC: Elvis Presley In Concert’ Review The list of truly iconic, monumental concert films is short and noteworthy. Woodstock. Stop Making Sense. The Last Waltz. Monterey Pop. In fact, several of these films were so groundbreaking, it feels as though nothing could ever come close to these classics. Yet somehow, magically, inexplicably, a film has managed to join these ranks - and all for an artist who’s been dead almost 50 years.

Baz Luhrmann's 'EPiC: Elvis Presley In Concert' far surpasses supplemental material for his 2022 film. It is a concert documentary unlike anything seen before

‘Project Hail Mary’ Review Science fiction has always fundamentally existed as a study of humanity, both on a literal and a metaphorical scale. It is about humanity, in all its triumphs and its shortcomings, as it struggles with its place in an ever-changing universe, be it technology, environment, or life not of this world. And metaphorically, it is a testament to what human creativity can accomplish, utilizing computers, sets, and puppets to craft creatures and worlds the human brain cannot fathom.

'Project Hail Mary' is the first bonafide blockbuster of 2026

99th Academy Award Predictions: Best Picture With the 98th Academy Awards firmly in the rearview, it’s time to look ahead to the future, as a new crop of contenders, each more fresh and exciting than the last, hungry for blood. That’s right, the 99th Academy Awards are officially accepting contenders, eager to follow in One Battle After Another’s footsteps.

From 'The Odyssey' and 'Dune' to 'Wild Horse Nine' and Tom Cruise, it's time for our earliest look at next year's Oscar race!

‘One Battle After Another’ Wins Six Oscars At The 98th Academy Awards One of the most exhilarating Oscar races has finally come to an end, and it has seen the coronation of Paul Thomas Anderson and the masterful One Battle After Another as the Best Picture winner for 2025.

Paul Thomas Anderson finally wins the Big One as 'One Battle After Another' and 'Sinners' dominate a lively, yet tame Oscars ceremony

98th Academy Awards LIVE! It’s finally time, folks! After a long, strange Oscar season, we are finally here at the 98th Academy Awards! Soon, we will find out if Sinners or One Battle After Another will take home Best Picture, if Timothée Chalamet will become an Oscar-winning performer, and if Paul Thomas Anderson will finally earn that overdue Oscar. I will be covering along in real time as the winners are announced, and will mark them in…

It's finally time for the 98th Academy Awards! Who will win between 'Sinners' and 'One Battle After Another?' Follow along here, live on The Sacred Wall!

98th Academy Awards Final Predictions This Sunday, the most exciting Oscar race in at least a decade - if not more - comes to an end. Two juggernauts face off for the title of Best Picture, and with one exception, the entire field of acting contenders is a minefield. Who will win at the 98th Academy Awards? Well, let’s take a look at the races, shall we?

It's 'Sinners' vs. 'One Battle After Another' in one of the most competitive Oscars in history. Every race is up in the air - who will win?

32nd Actor Awards (Formerly The Screen Actors Guild Awards) LIVE! It's time, one and all, for the 32nd Screen Actors Guild Awards! Sorry, I forgot - the Actor Awards. Sigh. At any rate, in a matter of moments, Kristen Bell will host, live on Netflix, as the best films and television performances of 2025 are awarded by their peers. Will The Pitt and The Studio continue their dominance? Can 

32nd Actor Awards (Formerly The Screen Actors Guild Awards) LIVE!

It's time, one and all, for the 32nd Screen Actors Guild Awards! Sorry, I forgot - the Actor Awards. Sigh. At any rate, in a matter of moments, Kristen Bell will host, live on Netflix, as the best films and television performances…

As Oscar Looms, It’s ‘Sinners’ Vs. ‘One Battle After Another’ This weekend will serve as a make-or-break moment for the 98th Academy Awards race. Of the Big Four Industry Awards, two have been presented (BAFTA and the Directors Guild of America Award), while two more are yet to come (the Producers Guild and SAG Awards, now the stupidly named Actor Awards). And while there’s still a chance for this weekend to shake things up, and the acting awards are completely up in the air, several races now feel like a certainty.

In the final weeks of voting, the Oscar race boils down to two juggernauts, while the acting races have never been more open

“Wuthering Heights” Review Few novels have captured the world’s attention quite like Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Released in 1847, the Gothic novel has elicited strong emotions with its portrayal of ghosts, sexuality, violence, revenge, class struggles, and beyond. Timeless in this manner, adaptations have come and gone ad infinitum, from the 1939 classic with Olivier to Andrea Arnold’s recent, intimate adaptation, in an attempt to engage with new audiences of the next generation.

Jacob Elordi and strong scenic design can't save the "erotic" take on "Wuthering Heights"

‘The Secret Agent’ Review So subtly it was not, at first, perceived, Brazil has been experiencing something of a cinematic renaissance. Born specifically out of a cultural reckoning with the infamous dictatorship that ruled the country (with U.S. support) from 1964 to 1985, the Brazilian New Wave has systematically called out the nation’s darkest period, finding critical and commercial support even as Bolsonaro and his followers attempt to revive the atrocities.

'The Secret Agent' is a fun, breezy, thrilling epic against the backdrop of the Brazilian dictatorship

‘Train Dreams’ Review Perhaps the hardest literary styles to adapt to the big screen is the sparse, lyrical novella. For every No Country For Old Men, there’s a Hemingway adaptation that falls flat. Denis Johnson’s 2012 novel Train Dreams is one of the more beautiful books of the last twenty years, capturing a man’s life and tragedies against an ever-changing American backdrop. Sadly, the terse beauty of his work cannot be found in Clint Bentley’s (half of the team that brought us last year’s remarkable Sing Sing) adaptation, which consistently hedges its bets and in doing so, loses the wonder that made Johnson’s work pop.

'Train Dreams' enraptures the passing nature of time...and feels it, too

‘Hamnet’ Review In 2020, Maggie O’Farrell’s historical fiction novel Hamnet became a surprise bestseller. It was a perfect blend: a sad story, a character study, and an exploration of the relationship between art and grief. Naturally, Hollywood came knocking, putting together a dream team of Academy Award-winning director Chloé Zhao and producers Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes. The result is as good (although, perhaps, not better) than anyone could expect, as Zhao has broken from her own directorial style to craft yet another humanist fable about love, loss, and catharsis.

Chloé Zhao's 'Hamnet' offers a poignant tale of love, loss, and art led by a tremendous Jessie Buckley

‘Marty Supreme’ Review Once upon a time, true artists used to craft films that grappled with our very identity as human beings. Films that addressed the human condition, that explored complicated humans pushed to their brink, and which captured a nation without an identity or an ethos in the aftermath of World War II. The films of Coppola, Scorsese, Cassavetes, Rosen, and beyond. To make a film of this caliber is a nigh-impossible challenge - to do so while making an entertaining film even harder.

'Marty Supreme' is one of the year's most fully-realized, expertly crafted, laugh-out-loud funny films

‘Bugonia’ Review While technically a reboot of the South Korean satirical horror Save the Green Planet, Bugonia feels like the film Yorgos Lanthimos has wanted to make his entire career. From his earlier, bleaker works in Dogtooth and The Lobster to his broader, yet more incisive breakthrough works like The Favourite and Poor Things, Lanthimos’ throughline has involved blending violence, psychological thrills, and comedy to dive deep into that which makes us human - for better or for worse.

'Bugonia' is a nasty, tense, fun thriller led by a terrific Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons

‘Sentimental Value’ Review The point of art is to allow you to tap into your deeply felt emotions. Literature, music, art, film, it all is designed to tell a story that allows the individual to unleash the emotions they themselves cannot entirely fathom. Few directors are as gifted at this as Joachim Trier, the masterful Norwegian director fresh off his Oslo Trilogy. His newest film, Sentimental Value, is something of a metatextual exploration of this phenomenon: a work of art about a work of art allowing its characters to process their own emotions.

'Sentimental Value' is another expertly acted, expertly staged drama about the relationship between art and catharsis

Where To Watch The 98th Academy Award Nominees With the nominations for the 98th Academy Awards now firmly in place, it’s time for one of my favorite yearly traditions: where to stream this year’s nominees. After all, everyone saw Sinners and KPop Demon Hunters, but how many saw Train Dreams or Hamnet?

From Best Picture to Best Documentary Short, here's every streaming service where you can find this year's Oscar nominees!

BREAKING NEWS: Legendary Comedian Catherine O’Hara Dead At 71 Tragic news as the legendary comedic actress Catherine O’Hara has passed away. The Emmy-winning actress was 71.

Tragic news as Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Home Alone,' 'Schitt's Creek,' and the Christopher Guest trilogy, has passed away at 71

‘One Battle After Another’ And ‘Sinners’ Top The 29th Online Film Critics Society Awards As some readers may know, I am a voting member of the Online Film Critics Society. Every January, I and several other Internet film critics submit ballots for the best films of the year. While I won’t be sharing my ballot until my annual(ish) Sacred Wall Awards drop in February, I can share the nominations and winners for the 29th Online Film Critics Society Awards!

The Online Film Critics Society (of which The Sacred Wall is a member) has named the best films of 2025, with 'One Battle After Another' and 'Sinners' on top

98th Academy Award Nominations LIVE! It’s finally time, folks! The 98th Academy Awards are finally upon us! Will Sinners break the record for the most nominations in history? Will One Battle After Another tie the acting record? And who will earn those final three coveted Best Picture slots? I will be announcing today’s nominees live alongside Good Morning America and announcers Danielle Brooks and Lewis Pullman…

Find out the nominees for the 98th Academy Awards live, right here at The Sacred Wall!

Final 98th Academy Award Nomination Predictions Tomorrow, the Academy will announce their nominations for the 98th Academy Awards. It has been a long, crazy season, one that’s looking to see several longtime Oscar records fall. So one more time before entering Phase Two, let’s look at where we stand in the Oscar race.

With the Academy Award nominations coming tomorrow, expect 'Sinners' and 'One Battle After Another' to have a record-breaking day

‘Frankenstein’ Review It’s hard to imagine a more clear example of “a match made in Heaven” than Guillermo del Toro taking on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus. While mostly associated with the (terrific) 1931 version that gave us a lumbering green oaf, Shelley’s original tale is a moral tragedy about one man’s lust for power, the mistake of trying to play God, and a broken creature capable of great thought and depth driven to violence by man’s own cruel nature.

Guillermo del Toro's 'Frankenstein' is the story he's been destined to adapt - as one can tell from the lush, yet fully stuffed runtime

83rd Golden Globe Awards LIVE! It's time once again for televised award shows with the 83rd Golden Globe Awards. In a matter of minutes, Nikki Glaser will officially kick off the season, and the battle of Sinners and One Battle After Another will commence. Who will become our acting frontrunners? Will the TV domination continue for The Pitt, The Studio, and Adolescence…

It's time for the beginning of 'One Battle After Another' vs. 'Sinners' as the 83rd Golden Globes begin televised awards season. And you can see the winners live, right here on the Sacred Wall!

Golden Globes Predictions: The 9th Annual Sacred Wall Beat The Guru Competition Well folks, it’s finally time. While last month’s Gothams and last week’s Critics Choice Awards officially kicked off the televised shows, the real time to shine is the Golden Globe Awards, celebrating its 83rd outing this year. And while Nikki Glaser finalizes her script for her 2nd time hosting, we here at the Sacred Wall are preparing with our most time-honored tradition: the 9th Annual Sacred Wall Beat the Guru Golden Globes Competition!

It's time once again for Lena Hagedorn and I to compete in our Beat the Guru Golden Globes competition! We cover everything, from 'One Battle After Another' and 'Sinners' to 'KPop Demon Hunters'

black & white screenshot of Jack Lemmon's C.C. Baxter and Shirley MacLaine's Miss Fran Kubelik in Baxter's apartment. Fran is wearing a plaid flannel robe with her arms crossed, looking at Baxter who's showing her a fruitcake - and his bare knee - where he once accidentally shot himself. his little Charlie Brown Christmas tree is in the foreground, covered in tinsel, lights, and metallic round ornaments.

MacLaine's Fran sitting alone wearing a dress and pearls in a Chinese restaurant, looking grim in a New Year's paper crown with two champagne glasses in front of her.

The Apartment is a Christmas movie and a New Year's Eve movie and a perfect movie, period

The Sacred Wall Presents: The 2025 Holiday Viewing Guide A Very Merry Sacred Wall Christmas to you all! It’s that time of year where families get together for extended family time, what with the kids out of school and the relatives traveling and what not. And eventually, they remember why they only see these relatives once a year. Ultimately, movies become a reprieve from politics and awkward small talk. But what to watch, especially with so many different tastes fighting over one remote?

Just in time to help prevent family fights over the remote, it's The Sacred Wall Holiday Viewing Guide!

‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ Review The Benoit Blanc cinematic universe has always been predicated on its social commentary. The first one touched on immigration while tackling the wealthy elites and the illusion of a power struggle when you already have it all. The second satirized the uber-wealthy failsons whose charisma and blackmail allows them to amass fortunes they’re not smart enough to earn on their own.

'Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery' is the series' most thematically rich to date, even with a weaker script

‘One Battle After Another’ And ‘The White Lotus’ Lead The 83rd Golden Globe Award Nominations We’re right in the throes of awards season, and in the blink of an eye, we’re already at the 83rd Golden Globe Awards! And if the Globes are here to prove one thing, it’s that no matter how predictable they seem, they’re always ready to shake things up.

'One Battle After Another' earns nine nominations to lead the pack for the 83rd Golden Globes

83rd Golden Globe Award Nominations LIVE! With Critics' Week firmly in our rearview, the next phase of awards season is finally ready to kick off, thanks to the 83rd Golden Globe Awards! In just a few minutes, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will award the best films and television shows of the year. And with both Sinners and One Battle After Another poised to break Globe records, it'll be interesting to see just what films can get in, and if the HFPA finally takes some big swings.

The 83rd Golden Globe nominations are being announced, and you can see the nominations live, right here!

We will be giving a Special Citation to Judy Kim of Gardena Cinema, a historic 800-seat, single-screen movie palace that has operated as an independent cinema and beacon of community since the Kim family took ownership in 1976. #LAFCA