Movie Reviews

By Tom Pacak The title of “Ad Astra” is Latin for “through hardships to the stars.” This phrase suggests that through perseverance, we can eventually reach for greatness if we continue the path we’re on. “Ad Astra” is a fitting title for a great film about searching for the meaning of life, father and son relationships, being lost in space, reality vs. fiction, and even moon pirates. As cliché as it sounds; James Gray’s “Ad Astra” is a film I needed to watch right now for personal reasons. Searching for the meaning of life at twenty-three can be very difficult. When your little, your parents take you to church to help build your foundations on God but some people break away from their parent's philosophy to form their own. That search can be very difficult and at times frustrating. Many top critics have described watching “Ad Astra” as a religious experience. For me, it was more spiritual. The film doesn’t explore how God was created but instead goes into ho...

By Tom Pacak Almost two months after seeing Quentin Tarantino’s love letter to 60s cinema, I can confirm that “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is easily my second favorite Tarantino film and easily one of the year’s best films. Some Tarantino fans may be disappointed that the film doesn’t include the over the top violence and clever dialogue seen in such classics as “Pulp Fiction” and “Inglorious Basterds.” Instead, life long fans and even outsiders get to see a filmmaker who’s evolved into a more mature director. Here, Tarantino has used the late 60s during the Mansion murders as a backdrop to create a fictional version of Hollywood only he knows. Tarantino puts into every frame how much he loves the industry from the 1960s Westerns that shaped his career, to the great 60s commercials you listen to every time a character is driving around, and even his imagination of how the Manson murders happened. This is a very profound and poignant film about failure, redempt...